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| Migrating Monarchs (by David R. Tribble) |
The 3,000-mile migration that many monarchs undertake has often been called “miraculous.”
These fluttering "souls" (as named by Aristotle) seem far too flimsy to be that flighty. How is it
that they can survive such an arduous journey?
Will Dunham of Reuters
explains that scientists have “pinpointed a single gene related to flight muscle efficiency that plays a major role in the monarch butterfly’s migration.” This research entailed comparing “the genetic blueprint of migratory monarchs to those that do not
migrate.”
The orange coloring of monarchs also plays an important part in their amazing survival. It scares away potential predators by alerting them that monarchs “taste awful and are toxic to eat thanks to chemicals from the milkweed plants that nourish them in their larval state.”
Millions of monarchs have been migrating thousands of miles for millions of years. Humans seeking miracles might just want to meditate on that.
Resources
http://news.yahoo.com/gene-plays-key-role-monarch-butterflys-miraculous-migration-170506789.html
Copyright October 2, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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