visit to the Monarch reserves (long)

[Woody Woods]

So much attention is aimed at the Monarch population overwintering in
Mexico-- what about the others? I don't mean to diminish the importance of
attention to the best known and most studied populaton, but heck, there are
Monarchs from eastern Canada to Pacific islands, no? Elsewhere?

I can't help but wonder at the diversity of strategies these populations
have evolved. I've mentioned the Costa Rican Monarchs before (all right, D.
plexippus megalippe, but morphologically really hard to distinguish); they
are reproductively active year-round, right through their altitudinal
migration. A recent post about Monarchs came from the Caribbean (megalippe
as I recall). Then there are the populations in the western U.S., which
overwinter at higher temperatures than in Mexico; their energetics
strategies are less well studied.

And didn't I hear that they're in Hawaii?

Strikes me that the variety of natural histories of various Monarch
populations, which suggest that we might be watching examples of pretty
incredible variation and evolutionary potential, is the truly interesting
subject! 

Woody

*************************************************
William A. Woods Jr.
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd
Boston, MA 02125

Lab: 617-287-6642
Fax: 617-287-6650
*************************************************

> From: "Grkovich, Alex" <agrkovich at tmpeng.com>
> Reply-To: agrkovich at tmpeng.com
> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 17:14:03 -0500
> To: "'Jim Taylor'" <drivingiron at earthlink.net>, monarch at saber.net, Leps-L
> <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
> Subject: RE: visit to the Monarch reserves (long)
> 
> So do I...last year was a great example...the "doom and gloom" of
> disappearing Monarchs on their way to extinction from the big storm was
> great big news, and no doubt sold a lot of newspapers and made a lot of
> money. Yet, all of sudden, in September, Monarchs were everywhere, all over
> the place. Golly.
> 
> Now they seem to be very busy covering their behinds trying to say how
> "remarkable" it is that they "somehow" rebounded.
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jim Taylor [SMTP:drivingiron at earthlink.net]
>> Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 4:52 PM
>> To: monarch at saber.net; Leps-L
>> Subject: Re: visit to the Monarch reserves (long)
>> 
>> I agree with what Paul says ON the list. He takes a great deal of flak,
>> and
>> I think he is frequently a helluva lot more accurate than some of his
>> detractors.
>> 
>> Jim Taylor (flame away.)
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Paul Cherubini" <monarch at saber.net>
>> To: "Leps-L" <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
>> Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 5:02 AM
>> Subject: Re: visit to the Monarch reserves (long)
>> 
>> 
>>> Jim Mason wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Paul,
>>>> 
>>>> Get a life.
>>> 
>>> Jim, believe it or not, people do write me occassionally off list
>>> with comments like:
>>> 
>>> "I frequently find your posts particularly "balancing" to the
>>> regular environmental doom and gloom."
>>> 
>>> Paul Cherubini
>>> 
>>> 
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