[leps-talk] Re: Recent Boston Globe "monarchs are threatened" article

[The Walkers]

It seems more intuitive to me that the Monarch is not migrating in order to
access the ever precious milkweeds, but that the Monarch has chosen
milkweeds because they are are readily available all along their migration
path.  I'd say this is one hearty insect indeed, probably one of the most
hearty, other than locusts, Vanessa cardui, and cockroaches (but after all,
EVERY insect has the potential at any given time of creating a pestilence). 
Weed eaters seem to be the best adapted of all the invertebrates.  Migrating
weed eaters are the best of the best.  Cardui can basically eat anything
along its migration path.

By the way, do you suppose that there may come a time when the migration
path of the Monarch becomes circum-global?  How cool would that be.

Now the Monarch does make itself vulnerable by clustering so densely during
the winter, but then they are just taking the same strategy that the most
successful armies of the 2nd millenium used for withstanding their enemies. 
Strength in numbers.  Sacrifice the front lines, as long as you can keep
throwing out new individuals.  It's kind of like Risk - the team with the
biggest army wins.

I don't know.  It's easy to get worried about the ill environmental effects
of human stupidity because we can be quite self-serving and oblivious.  And
we are capable of eliminating both species and habitat.  But my guess is
that the Monarch is equipped to out-survive mankind.  If we wipe out their
overwintering colonies in Mexico, a few of them will go somewhere else, and
in a few years you'll have billions again.  If we poison or eradicate all of
the milkweed in the U.S., a few of them will adapt to something else, and in
a few years you'll have billions again.  I don't think you could
successfully eliminate Monarchs even if you tried.  Kind of like the
Argentinean ants I'm trying to get rid of in my house.  In that case, I hope
I CAN create an extirpation - or better yet, an extinction.  With all of our
food stuffs (and my insect collection) tightly sealed, the little bastards
have now relegated to eating the silicon sealing around my shower stall. 
But just when I think I've gotten the best of them, they come back strong
and all the more determined.

Frogs don't rule the world, but insects do.  When the last human being has
planted her face motionless into the ground from whence she came, you can be
sure that insects will still be wiggling inside of her.

Mark Walker.
 
Paul Cherubini wrote:
>Pat Foley wrote:
 
> But as we have cleared up several times on this list, the Monarch's
> Eastern NA migration behavior is a much more fragile thing. Why?
>1) This kind of migration is not common in butterflies. It
> apparently requires just the right conditions.
 
Fragile?  I'd say quite the opposite...  

<snippage>
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