HO HO WHAT?

[Paul Cherubini]

Guy Van de Poel & A. Kalus wrote:

>  But if I were to rear monarchs over here (Germany), I could choose which
> plants I would take to rear them on. So if I would rear them on A. syriaca
> they would come from ...
> Nobody can garantee that I use the proper plant, so that's why it should be
> forbidden to release them at all (that is over here in Europe).
> 
> Guy.

If you became a commercial monarch breeder in Germany you would not grow
A. syriaca because it does not grow well continously in a greenhouse 
environment and cannot be harvested repeatedly to feed hungry caterpillars.

Monarchs have been appearing in the fall in the British Isles on a fairly regular
basis since 1876 - long before there were businesses in England breeding
and releasing monarchs or holding them in butterfly houses (from which
they sometimes escaped). 

As in mentioned in an earlier post, in the mid-1800's steam powered
ships replaced wind powered ships and the travel time between
the USA and England was cut from months down to only 7-10 days.

So I feel it is highly likely that cardenolide fingerprinting will
eventually tell us the natal source of these autumnal British Isles 
monarchs is the USA or Canada because they will be found to consistently
have the fingerprint of A. syriaca.

Paul Cherubini

 
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