Monarch study

Monarch MigrationFall 2012

Introduction to our Field StudyOur class decided to conduct a study of the Monarch’s migratory journey south to Mexico. Our study began once we made our first observation on October 9th and we concluded our study one month after our first observation, November 9th. Over the course of this study, we learned that Austin is in the middle of a migratory corridor that the Monarchs fly through to reach their winter habitats in Mexico. Our field study looked at four questions.

Research Questions Do Monarchs visit our campus during the fall migration?

Is one gender more commonly observed than the other?

When observed, are they puddling, perching, basking, or nectaring, soaring, or low flying?

If they are observed nectaring, what plants do they nectar from?

Do Monarchs visit our campus during their fall migration to Mexico? From our observations, we have learned that Monarchs do

in fact visit our campus during their migration. We observed some Monarchs soaring high over our campus heading south, some were seen flying low past our campus, and others were seen either nectaring or perching. One important observation was that during the first half of the month, almost all of our observations came from our drainage field filled with Lantana. Later in the month, when the Lantana flowers had passed, the Monarchs moved onto our campus and collected nectar from the native boneset flowers and Privet. From our observations, we believe that the Monarchs use both sight and smell to find their food. The Lantana didn’t have a smell when they were in bloom but were very colorful. The Privet and the Boneset were very fragrant and its sweet smell could easily be sensed by us.

Is one gender more commonly observed than the other? Of our 48 observations, we were able to

determine for certain the genders of 16 monarchs. We had 11 female and 5 male confirmed Monarch observations. Each of these butterflies were photographed in a way where we could tell the male from the female. Based on these observations, the female Monarchs outnumbered the Males by more than 2:1. Eleven of the sixteen monarchs, or 69%, were females.

Differences between a male and a female Monarch

Male: notice the two dots located at the bottom center of the wings.

Female: has no dots on its wings.

When Monarchs are observed, are they puddling, nectaring, basking, perching, low flying, or soaring?

Puddling: sipping moisture from puddle or mud to gain minerals. Nectaring: Collecting flower nectar for energy. Basking: Sunning themselves to get warm. Low Flying: looking for water, nectar or a place to perch or bask Soaring: Riding the northernly airflow to cover large distances

more quickly and efficiently.

Puddling

Though we had places for Monarchs to puddle, we had no observations of this behavior during our field study.

Nectaring

20 of our 48 observations were of Monarchs nectaring. Nearly all of our data for male and female butterflies came from when they were nectaring. 42%,of our total observations came from nectaring Monarchs.

Basking

We did not have any observations of Monarchs basking during our field study. We did however observe a Monarch look-a-like basking. This look-a-like is called a Viceroy and it has evolved to look like the non edible Monarch to minimize the chances of it being eaten by a predator.

A Monarch look-a-like… The Viceroy

Perching

We observed one Monarch in the morning perching from an Ashe Juniper tree. It had probably spent the night in the drainage field. Unfortunately we did not see a group of Monarchs perching on a tree. This would be called a “roost”.

Here is a photo of a perching Monarch

Low Flying

Soaring

We had 3 observations of soaring Monarchs. These observations came when the wind was strong from the north and the butterflies were using this wind to help push them south at a quick rate. Observing soaring Monarchs is more challenging due to the heights in which they soar. Certainly there were many who soared over our campus but just weren’t observed.

Soaring Monarchs

What nectar plants do we observe Monarchs feeding from?

Monarchs were nectaring from Texas Lantana during the first half of October exclusively. We also planted purple Buddleia bushes (butterfly bush). This is a known Monarch attractant and maybe next year we will observe Monarchs nectaring from these bushes as well. We did not observe any Monarchs nectaring from our small stands of Frost Weed or Golden Rod. During the second half of the Month when the Lantana when out of bloom, the White Mistflower (Boneset) came into bloom and was a big attractant of the Monarchs and many other butterflies and pollinators as well.

A breakdown of our month long study

15 of our 48 sightings were from the first two weeks of our study (october 9 -23). This means 33 of our 48 sightings came from the second half of the study(Oct 24-Nov 9).

We had a total of 20 Monarchs that were observed nectaring on flowers. 16 of those 20 were nectaring during the second half of the study.

4 of 20 were observed nectaring from Lantana. 5 of 20 were observed nectaring from Privet and 11 of 20 were observed nectaring from the Native Boneset.

October 9

October 10

October 15

October 19

November 1

November 5

November 6