Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) frequently consume milkweed in and near agroecosystems and consequently may be exposed to pesticides like neonicotinoids. We conducted a dose response study to determine lethal and sublethal doses of clothianidin using a 36-h exposure scenario. We then quantified clothianidin levels found in milkweed leaves adjacent to maize fields. Toxicity assays reveale...

This paper examines the electromagnetic energies developed in the scales of the Lepidoptera Danaus plexippus. The Green tensor method was used to calculate and simulate the energies at specific wavelengths. Scattering of electromagnetic waves within the scales was simulated at different wavelengths (λ) with the corresponding maximum energy occurred at λ = 0.45 μm. The study shows that the desig...

Each fall, eastern North American monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) migrate from their northern range to their overwintering grounds in central Mexico. Fall migrants are in reproductive diapause, and they use a time-compensated sun compass to navigate during the long journey south. Eye-sensed directional cues from the daylight sky (e.g., the horizontal or azimuthal position of the sun) are...

1. Hipparchus and Plutarch. Plutarch was a Greek biographer and philosopher from Chaeronea, who was born before a.d. 50 and died after a.d. 120. He is best known for his Parallel Lives, which inspired such Renaissance writers as Montaigne, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Rousseau. His many other works have been gathered together under the name Moralia, \a collection of comparatively short treatises an...

1. Hipparchus and Plutarch. Plutarch was a Greek biographer and philosopher from Chaeronea, who was born before a.d. 50 and died after a.d. 120. He is best known for his Parallel Lives, which inspired such Renaissance writers as Montaigne, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Rousseau. His many other works have been gathered together under the name Moralia, \a collection of comparatively short treatises an...

Photo 1. Mellisodes sp. attacking Danaus plexippus. credit: Robert Root-Bernstein. 2. Xylocopa virginica a Bombus 3. Colletes (upside down) and altercating over flower. 4. Agapostemon Polites coras. 5. Agpostemon wrestling with These photographs illustrate the article “Flower visitor insects display an interspecific dominance hierarchy on flowers” by Thomas Renaud Meredith Root-Bernstein publis...

The 5,006-nucleotide (nt)-long genome of a new virus from monarch butterfly pupae was cloned and sequenced. It was flanked by inverted terminal repeats (ITRs) of 239 nt with 163-nt hairpins. The monosense genome with three open reading frames is typical of the genus Iteradensovirus in the subfamily Densovirinae of the family Parvoviridae.