[Leps-l] monarchs, reversal of orientation and overwintering temperatures

[MexicoDoug]

Paul,

Well, on the positive side, I see a very interesting paper out there to 
find out, if your contention is true, what exactly it is about the 
flight simulator that would cause statistically significant results at 
all, considering it is unlikely the butterfly doesn't have a roadmap.  
What about the "disappearance bearing" method?  Do you know of any 
evidence that the initial bearing is too spurrious as the butterfly 
acclimatizes to the stimuli it probably needs some time to process, or 
imight it more likely match the true direction of the individuals 
released in their future flight plan?

Best wishes
Doug


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Cherubini <monarch at saber.net>
To: Leps List <Leps-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Sent: Fri, Feb 22, 2013 12:35 am
Subject: Re: [Leps-l] monarchs, reversal of orientation and 
overwintering  temperatures

On Feb 21, 2013, at 8:57 PM, MexicoDoug wrote:

> Still the tethered flight set up is cool, Paul, you
> ought to get one of those to play with!

Doug, the tethered flight set up has never been shown to
reliably reveal the migratory flight directions of free
living monarchs in various parts of the USA.

Example: The actual fall migratory flight directions of
monarchs in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona
in September are known to range from Northwest to Southeast
like this:
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9093/northamericat.jpg
http://swmonarchs.org/az-recoveries_wild.php
even when the butterflies have been tagged and released
at the same time on the same day (which rules out
the "they were blown this or that way" theory).

But the tethered flight simulator would likely show the
butterflies heading only southwest which is not what
really happens.  To date the researchers who use the tethered
flight simulator havn't shown any interest in testing it
out in States like Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona
in order to find how the butterflies would orient.

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.


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