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Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus, 1758) Monarch

2QH RI WKH PRVW IDPRXV EXWWHUÁLHV ZHOO NQRZQ E\ LWV KXJH calculated Fst using the 5 loci and again found that your 3
migrations from N America to Mexico in the autumn and after sample is highly genetically differentiated from all the other
overwintering in communal roosting of millions, same adults populations. However with a sample size of 1 there is not © Stav Talal
Á\ EDFN WR VRXWKHUQ 1 $PHULFD LQ VSULQJ 0\ ÀUVW DFTXDLQWDQFH much power to be sure of these Fst values.” She also added
with the Monarch dates back to the mid 1950’s when my high that “It might be expected from founder effect and genetic
VFKRRO ÀQDO SURMHFW ZDV D )LHOG *XLGH WR WKH %XWWHUÁLHV RI 0W drift ....to have originated in Belize/Central America”.
Carmel (Haifa, Israel). Lacking any English reference book my 2WKHU RSLQLRQV
parents visited Ringart’s bookshop in downtown Haifa where “Her answer and the numerous speculations: FRQWDPLQDWLRQ” © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini © Stav Talal ©Dubi Benyamini
WKH\ FKHFNHG %ULWLVK EXWWHUÁ\ ERRNV DQG RUGHUHG ( % )RUG·V – A. M. Shapiro; “+\EULGL]DWLRQ with D. erippus, DUULYDO ZLWK VKLS, infection
%XWWHUÁLHV &ROOLQV UG (G ,W WUDYHOHG D IHZ ZHHNV E\ VKLS by ZROEDFKLD”- (Gerardo Lamas). Mario Elgueta the curator of Lepidoptera in
to Israel and arrived just in time to help me complete my duties the Chilean Natural History Museum speculated that: “2FFDVLRQDO DUULYDOV
to the high school. I hold this copy right now in my hands and to Chile of sole specimens are frequent and inclusive; there are evidences
its yellowish-brown pages tells my story of admiring thirty eight of some insect arrivals as far as from the West Pacific (i.e. dragonfly Pantala
plexippus specimens that were observed in the UK in 1933 and flavescens) and from the north too (i. e. Ascalapha odorata)...”
´3HUKDSV WUDYHOHG IURP $PHULFD E\ LWV RZQ SRZHUV RI ÁLJKW D
minute proportion..of a great migratory swarm..which survived..
the swell..”. Ford (1945: 158) supported his view of cross Atlantic
Ocean migration by “two pieces of evidence”: Monarchs that &KLOH © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini
were observed or collected on steamers 200/300 and 800
N.A Bel. CR S. PR Aruba Ecu BM Spain Port Mor. Hawaii Pacific Islands
miles respectively west of Glasgow and Queenstown over the Florida
Atlantic ocean. This was about 40 years before Urquhart’s (1976) N.A. - North America, Bel. - Beliz, CR - Costa Rica, PR - Puerto Rico, Ecu - Ecuador, BM - Bermuda,
discovered the overwintering of the Monarchs in Mexico and 60 3RUW 3RUWXJDO 0RU 0RURFFR 3DFLÀF ,VODQGV 6DPRD )LML 1HZ &DOHGRQLD $XVWUDOLD 1HZ =HDODQG
years before the well documented cross Atlantic migration to %LRORJ\
Western Europe (Coombes et al., 1995; Hensle, 2002). DB own
experience of collecting, observing and breeding Monarchs out )OLJKW SHULRG warm months of the year, adult’s overwintering
of North America took him to the Canary and Madeira Islands in in the northern hemisphere.
the N Atlantic Ocean, a dead specimen in Port Stanley, Falkland
islands S Atlantic Ocean (D. p. erippus), Kauai Hawaii islands and /LIH KLVWRU\ QRW UHFRUGHG LQ WKH /HYDQW polyvoltine, white
0RRUHD LVODQG )UHQFK 3RO\QHVLD LQ WKH 3DFLÀF 31* DQG PRVW barrel shaped pointed upwards eggs 1 mm high with 18-20
surprising a male collected by the author in Copiapo, 700 km vertical ribs are laid singly on all parts of the hostplants but © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini © Walfgang Wagner
N Santiago, Chile in 14 August 1994 - illustr. Prof. A. M. Shapiro SUHIHUDEO\ XQGHU LWV OHDYHV DQG ÁRZHU EXGV WXUQV JUH\ EHIRUH
(UC Davis, USA - pers. comm. to DB) described this possible cross eclosion 5-7 days later. L1 is 2.5 mm long, off white with lateral
SDFLÀF PLJUDQW RI NP IURP 3RO\QHVLD 7DKLWL RU RQO\ rings of short black setae and black glossy head, it will attain 50
+ km from Pitcairn Islands to S American shores as Benyamini’s mm long L5 in two and a half to three weeks in lab. 25°C. The
greatest discovery in all his 70+ years of Lepidopterology. In the fully grown toxic larva has warning coloration of its segments
Mediterranean they established permanent population hold in S in transverse black – white – yellow or yellowish-green bands
Spain in 1979. Their potential of super-long range expansions, WR DOHUW LWV SRWHQWLDO SUHGDWRUV W\SLFDO EODFN ÀODPHQWV H[LVW LQ
ceremonial releases in the Mediterranean e.g. Pafos, Cyprus in segments 2 and 11, the head is black with yellow strips. The
19 October 2013 (John, 2015), their numerous LHPs especially pendulous papa is 25 mm long, bluish-green with gold spots
of Apocynaceae (ex Asclepiadaceae) (e.g. Cynanchum acutum, ring in its widest diameter between the thorax and the abdomen,
Calotropis procera and cultivated Asclepias & Gamphocarpus and it will hatch after 9-10 days at the same lab. temp.
spp.) in the warmer parts of the Mediterranean and the global
warming-up, list the monarch high among future permanent new 3RWHQWLDO 5HFRUGHG KRVWSODQWV: same Apocynaceae (ex © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini
species in the Levant. Asclepiadaceae) as for Danaus chrysippus with preference to
wild Cynanchum acutum & Calotropis procera and cultivated/ 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
&URVV 3DFLILF PLJUDWLRQ WR &KLOH DQG '1$ UHVXOWV invasive Asclepias, Gomphocarpus & Araujia spp.
Mrs Amanda Ashley of the University of North Carolina,
Biology Dept. who analyzed a leg of the Copiapo Monarch &RQVHUYDWLRQ 6FRWW ZDV DPRQJ ÀUVW UHVHDUFKHUV
wrote: “The DNA yield and quality was unfortunately quite to worn that overwintering Monarchs loose defence because
low and this is after trying two different extraction methods. of on-going decline in their toxicity. While the larvae and
However, I was still able to get data for 5 microsatellite loci adults are protected in most cases from predators by its toxic
to compare this sample with our other worldwide samples. cardenolides they cannot survive the Anthropocene-induced
I’ve attached a STRUCTURE plot made using the 5 loci...The terrible population decline that is on-going for several decades
Chilean sample is at the end. Shockingly, your sample is and even accelerated in the 21st century; e.g. Pelton (2019)
unlike any of the other Monarch samples we have genotyped described the winter/early spring 2018 decline of US west
from around the world. In fact it consistently groups as its coast Monarchs as “population crash”. We will deal with this
own population even if I try to “trick” STRUCTURE and tell JOREDO WKUHDW IRU EXWWHUÁLHV LQ 9RO ,
the program that it is from the same sampling location
as another population (for example, for one analysis I 'LVWULEXWLRQ
indicated that your sample was from New Zealand to see 7/ ´3HQQV\OYDQLDµ 1 & $PHULFD WR 3HUX +DZDLL 3DFLÀF
if STRUCTURE would try to group it along with the other Islands; New Zealand; Australia: PNG; India; Sri-Lanka, Azores,
New Zealand samples, yet STRUCTURE was consistent Madeira, Canary & Cape Verde Atlantic islands; Portugal;
in identifying that it is actually quite different). I also S Spain; Ireland; UK; France / W Europe, Greece, Cyprus © Stav Talal © Shalev Weisman © Moshe Sahar
calculated Fst using the 5 loci and again found that your (occasional migrants in W&S Europe except S Spain).

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