The Monarch Butterfly

[Private Pickle]

Isn't that illegal in your state? That whole sodomy thing, you know.

Colorado? Who cares....

[OGIS]

Colorado? Who cares....

Not sure about Colorado, but if so, does that mean you practice "selective law observance" in your life? You know, the same thing that conservatives accuse potheads of doing?

[Private Pickle]

Not sure about Colorado, but if so, does that mean you practice "selective law observance" in your life? You know, the same thing that conservatives accuse potheads of doing?

Yes.

[waltky]

Butterfly migration mystery solved...

Great monarch butterfly migration mystery solved
Thu, 14 Apr 2016 - Scientists solve the navigation mystery of one of nature's most famous journeys - the migration of monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico.

Scientists have built a model circuit that solves the mystery of one of nature's most famous journeys - the great migration of monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico. Monarchs are the only insects to migrate such a vast distance. So, by teaming up with biologists, mathematicians set out to recreate the internal compass they use to navigate on that journey. The findings are published in the journal Cell Reports.

Lead researcher Prof Eli Shlizerman, from the University of Washington, explained that, as a mathematician, he wants to know how neurobiological systems are wired and what rules we can learn from them. "Monarch butterflies [complete their journey] in such an optimal, predetermined way," he told BBC News. "They end up in a particular location in Central Mexico after two months of flight, saving energy and only using a few cues."

Prof Shlizerman worked with biologist colleagues, including Steven Reppert at the University of Massachusetts, to record directly from neurons in the butterflies' antennae and eyes. "We identified that the input cues depend entirely on the Sun," explained Prof Shlizerman. "One is the horizontal position of the Sun and the other is keeping the time of day. "This gives [the insects] an internal Sun compass for travelling southerly throughout the day." Having worked out the inputs for this internal compass, Prof Shlizerman then created a model system to simulate it.

This consisted of two control mechanisms - one based on the timekeeping "clock" neurons in the butterflies' antennae and the other from what are called azimuth neurons in their eyes. These monitor the position of the Sun. "The circuit gets those two signals then matches them, according to how it's wired, to control signals that tell the system if a correction is needed to stay on the correct course," explained Prof Shlizerman. "For me this is very exciting - it shows how a behaviour is produced by the integration of signals," he added. "We can take these concepts to produce robotic versions of these systems - something [that is] powered by and that navigates by the Sun."

Prof Shlizerman said that one of his team's goals was to build a robotic monarch butterfly that could follow the insects and track their entire migration. "It's a very interesting application that could follow the butterflies and even help maintain them. "Their numbers are decreasing, so we want to keep this insect - the only one that migrates these huge distances - with us for many years." Prof Matthew Cobb from the University of Manchester told BBC News that the study showed that "something as astounding as the monarch migration can be understood in terms of cellular circuitry". "Our current robots are far cruder than even the simplest nervous system," he added.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36046746

[JDubya]

I was under the impression that their migration lasted all year and was accomplished over four generations of reproduction.

Not all of them end up in Mexico BTW. The ones who start out in eastern Canada end up here in Florida. We get the winter generation down here every year.

I grow milkweed in my backyard to help give them host plants to lay their eggs on.

[waltky]

Butterflies an' bees endangered...

Monarch butterfly numbers drop by 27 percent in Mexico
February 9, 2017 — The number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped by 27 percent this year, reversing last year's recovery from historically low numbers, according to a study by government and independent experts released Thursday.

The experts say the decline could be due to late winter storms last year that blew down more than 100 acres (40 hectares) of forests where migrating monarch butterflies spend the winter in central Mexico. Millions of monarchs make the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) migration from the United States and Canada each year, and they cluster tightly in the pine and fir forests west of Mexico City. They are counted not by individuals, but by the area they cover. "The reduction in the area of forest they occupied this year is most probably due to the high mortality caused by storms and cold weather last year," said Omar Vidal, the head of the Mexico office of the World Wildlife Fund. "It is a clear reminder for the three countries that they must step up actions to protect breeding, feeding and migratory habitat."

Officials estimate the storms in March killed about 6.2 million butterflies, almost 7.4 percent of the estimated 84 million that wintered in Mexico, said Alejandro Del Mazo, Mexico's commissioner for protected areas. The monarchs were preparing to fly back to the U.S. and Canada at the time the storm hit. While no butterfly lives to make the round trip, a reduction in the number making it out of the wintering grounds often results in a decline among those who return the next year. The combination of rain, cold and high winds from the storms caused the loss of 133 acres (54 hectares) of pine and fir trees in the mountaintop wintering grounds, more than four times the amount lost to illegal logging. It was the biggest storm-related loss since the winter of 2009-10, when unusually heavy rainstorms and mudslides caused the destruction of 262 acres (106 hectares) of trees.

However, the fight against illegal logging continues. Last week, authorities detained a man trying to truck about a dozen huge tree trunks out of the butterfly reserve, using false papers asserting the trees were diseased and were being removed to reduce risk. In fact, investigators found the trees had been healthy. The monarchs depend on finding relatively well-preserved forests, where millions of the orange-and-black butterflies hang in clumps from the boughs. The trees, and the clumping, help protect the butterflies from cold rains and steep drops in temperature. That is why illegal logging in the 33,484-acre (13,551-hectare) nucleus of the reserve is so damaging. Illegal logging in the monarch reserve dropped from almost 49.4 acres (20 hectares) in 2015 to about 29.6 acres (12 hectares) last year. This year's loss has yet to be estimated.

MORE

See also:

Trump administration delays listing bumblebee as endangered
February 9, 2017 — The Trump administration on Thursday delayed what would be the first endangered designation for a bee species in the continental U.S., one day before it was to take effect.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a rule Jan. 11 extending federal protection to the rusty patched bumblebee, one of many types of bees that play a vital role in pollinating crops and wild plants. It once was common across the East Coast and much of the Midwest but its numbers have plummeted since the late 1990s. Federal law requires a 30-day waiting period before most new regulations become effective. The addition of the bumblebee to the endangered species list was scheduled for Friday. The listing would require the service to develop a plan for helping the bee recover and provide more habitat.

But in a Federal Register notice, the service announced a postponement until March 21 in keeping with a Trump administration order issued Jan. 20. It imposed a 60-day freeze on regulations that had been published in the register but hadn't taken effect. The delay, according to the White House, was for the purpose of "reviewing questions of fact, law and policy they raise." With President Donald Trump pledging to cut back on federal regulations, environmentalists said they feared the bumblebee protection might be doomed. "The Trump administration has put the rusty patched bumblebee back on the path to extinction," said Rebecca Riley, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "This bee is one of the most critically endangered species in the country and we can save it - but not if the White House stands in the way."

The U.S. Department of Interior, which includes the Fish and Wildlife Service, "is working to review this regulation as expeditiously as possible and expects to issue further guidance on the effective date of the listing shortly," spokeswoman Heather Swift told The Associated Press in an email. She did not say whether a decision had been made about whether the listing would go forward. No other pending endangered-species listings are affected by Trump's freeze, Swift said.

The rusty patched bumblebee has disappeared from about 90 percent of its range in the past 20 years. Scientists say disease, pesticide exposure, habitat loss and climate change are among possible causes. It's among a number of bee species that have suffered steep population declines — along with monarch butterflies, another key pollinator. The American Farm Bureau Federation opposed listing the bumblebee as endangered, saying it could lead to costly limits on land or chemical use and that private partnerships could more effectively preserve bee habitat. "We're excited that the administration is taking a second look," said Ryan Yates, the group's director of congressional relations.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...bee-endangered