By Roland Piquepaille
Monarch butterflies are well-known for their lengthy annual migration each fall from Canada to Mexico (and vice-versa in the spring) without losing their way for about 3,000 miles. As the length of these trips exceeds by far the lifetime of any given butterfly, it is strictly a one-way trip for each butterfly. So how do they return to the same locations over several generations? This was a mystery, until an international team of scientists finds the answer, revealed in this news release from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. These researchers have found that monarch butterflies "have special photoreceptors for ultraviolet (UV) light in their eyes which provide them with their sense of direction." Without UVs, they get lost. Read more...Before going further, here is a beautiful photograph of one of these monarch butterflies (Credit: Linda Thomas).
Here is a link to a larger version of this picture which comes from the Brookside Gardens Butterflies picture set of Linda Thomas on Flickr.
Here are some excerpts of the news release mentioned above.
The phenomenon of long-range bird migration is a well-known one, but not in the insect world. Also, among birds their migration route is a round-trip one, which they make more than once in their lifetimes, while for the monarch it is strictly a one-way trip for each butterfly. How do these creatures do it?
The mystery of the mechanisms involved in this remarkable phenomenon has been resolved by a team of scientists who did this by exploring the infinitesimal butterfly brain and eye tissues to uncover new insights into the biological machinery that directs this delicate creature on its lengthy flight path.
And here are some more details about the findings.
While light in general is essential to the functioning of the "biological clock" in the butterfly brain
Famous quotes containing the words monarch, butterflies, fly and/or lost:
“The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“We must remain as close to the flowers, the grass, and the butterflies as the child is who is not yet so much taller than they are. We adults, on the other hand, have outgrown them and have to lower ourselves to stoop down to them. It seems to me that the grass hates us when we confess our love for it.—Whoever would partake of all good things must understand how to be small at times.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“What a dissimilarity we see in walking, swimming, and flying. And yet it is one and the same motion: it is just that the load- bearing capacity of the earth differs from that of the water, and that that of the water differs from that of the air! Thus we should also learn to fly as thinkers—and not imagine that we are thereby becoming idle dreamers!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“A tree is made to live in peace in the color of day and in friendship with the sun, the wind and the rain. Its roots plunge in the fat fermentation of the soil, sucking in its elemental humors, its fortifying juices. Trees always seem lost in a great tranquil dream. The dark rising sap makes them groan in the warm afternoons. A tree is a living being that knows the course of the clouds and presses the storms because it is full of birds’ nests.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)