Monarchs and Monoculture in southern Michigan

[Ed Reinertsen]

Paul and all

Do you think if  we used the recovery data (numbers) we have now that
we could come-up with a ratio between Eastern population and the Atlantic 
population before
and after 2001? Would this give us a true picture whether or not GM crops 
have affected the monarchs?

Ed Reinertsen


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Cherubini" <monarch at saber.net>
To: <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 6:59 PM
Subject: Re: Monarchs and Monoculture in southern Michigan


> Robert Dana wrote:
>
>> Anyone have any data on the number of monarchs tagged
>> by state? It's hard to interpret the data on numbers of
>> [tag] returns without this.
>
> Dr. Chip Taylor has the data on the number of monarchs
> tagged by state. Although Dr. Taylor has been very willing
> to tell us the number of tag recoveries in Mexico by state,
> he has not published (as far as I'm aware) the number of
> monarchs tagged by state to begin with.
>
> However, I can tell you that a much higher percentage
> of the monarchs tagged in the corn / soybean belt of
> the upper Midwest (Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin,
> Illinois & the Dakotas) are consistently recovered at the
> overwintering sites in Mexico as compared to monarchs
> tagged in the eastern Great Lakes States, New England or
> the Atlantic coast.  This trend has been evident both before and
> after the widespread adoption of these crops by 2001.
>
> In other words, the States that now have the most intensive
> monocultures of BT corn and Roundup Ready soybeans
> are still the States that produce monarchs that are the most likely
> to successfully complete the journey to the overwintering sites
> Mexico.
>
> Paul Cherubini
> El Dorado, Calif.
>
>
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