Grade 3-6, MS, and HS

Long Distance Flyers and Their Need for Milkweed

A. Global Habitation

Based on amber samples from Colorado the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, has been in North America for at
least 10,000 years. Monarchs have spread throughout much of the world in the 1800’s and perhaps earlier. They
were first imported into Hawaii in the 1840’s from North American by sailing ships (Oberhauser, p. 259) and in the
following two decades the North American monarch species spread throughout the South Pacific (Agrawal, p.9).
Based on genetic research of the past twenty years, the Hawaiian population was not the source of the South Pacific
population. (Oberhauser, p.259-260)

Image Source: Monarch Distribution

The Australian goldrush that started in 1851 in their New South Wales province brought
U.S. miners from the 1848 California goldrush at Sutter’s Mill. As they brought their
belongs with them the also brought along their pillows which were stuffed with milkweed
seeds plus coma (trihansoz.com). After the well-used pillows were discarded. During the
1870s in Australia and New Zealand had reports of the monarch’s presence on the distinctive Image Source: Blog
milkweed plant: Asclepias californica. (australianbutterflies.com) Spot

Research published in 2002, by Karen Oberhauser, stated that the Australian and New
Zealand populations do not migrate and are clearly a direct genetic derivative of the North
American population (Oberhauser, p.259 & sciencelarn.org.nz). This research further
found that Australia and Hawaii had different subsets of alleles. Thus, Oberhauser

Image Source: Grow concludes that each population “derived from North America but that the colonization of
Milkweed Plants each location resulted from an independent dispersal event.” (Oberhauser, p.259)
 Grade 3-6, MS, and HS

By the end of the 1800s, Portugal and Spain had also reported monarch adults which had
likely been blown from the Canary Islands’ and/or Azores Islands’ populations (Kronforst
et al, 2014). These original monarchs were likely hitchhikers on the sailing ships returning
to England, Holland, Portugal, and Spain starting in the early 1600s. Genetically, these
islands’ populations derived directly from the North American population (Kronforst et al,
Map of Wind Pattern
2014) and they are non-migratory (gran-canaria-info.com). Image Source: Crossing
the Ocean

There are three current theories as to how the monarch butterfly hitched its way across the oceans: 1) the monarch
caterpillar hatched in the shipyards in North America and then crossed the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via ships that
frequently navigated those waters; or 2) some of the migrating adults landed on ships for a nightly roost and then
they hitchhiked across the water during the winters busiest shipping season; or 3) they were transported to their new
habitats by cyclones and/or hurricanes (Oberhauser, p.259-260).

The monarch populations beyond North America don’t appear to migrate like the
Eastern and Western monarch North American population do due to their more
temperate climate. The northern half of the North American continent have prolonged
freezing levels observed which is the reason why the monarch has to migrate to
survive. The main source of milkweed for the population outside of the US is a tropical
variety known as Asclepias. curassavica (Agrawal, p.6). It was originally found in
Asclepias curassavica
Mexico and does not shed its leaves seasonally, thus growing year-round. Therefore, Image Source: Prezi Presentation
there is no need to migrate for caterpillar stage to find a food source and avoid a harsh winter climate. Today, A.
curassavica has naturalized in portions of Africa, Australia, Micronesia, Polynesia, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Pakistan,
plus Hawaii and New Zealand (USDA/Grin, 2021).

Sources:

About Australia - Animals - History - People - Government. (n.d.). Retrieved January 3, 2023,
from https://trishansoz.com/trishansoz/

Agrawal, Anurag A. Monarchs and Milkweed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.

Crossing the Ocean. Crossing the Ocean Sea. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2023, from
http://crossingtheoceansea.com/

Genetics of migration in Monarch butterflies. Kronforst Lab. (n.d.). Retrieved January 3, 2023,
from https://kronforstlab.org/monarch/

Gran Canaria Info - Best Gran Canaria guide, since 1998. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2022, from
https://www.gran-canaria-info.com/en/
 Grade 3-6, MS, and HS

Grin-global: Empowering and enabling crop diversity. USDA ARS GRIN. (n.d.). Retrieved
January 3, 2023, from https://www.ars-grin.gov/

Google. (n.d.). Images with the URL "https://1.bp.blogspot.com" are not showing on my blog. what should I do? -
blogger community. Google. Retrieved January 2, 2023, from
https://support.google.com/blogger/thread/108309234/images-with-the-url-https-1-bp-blogspot-com-are-not-
showing-on-my-blog-what-should-i-do?hl=en

Grow Milkweed. GROW MILKWEED PLANTS. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2023, from
https://www.growmilkweedplants.com/

Kuranda attraction - Australian butterfly sanctuary. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2022, from
https://australianbutterflies.com/butterflies/

Oberhauser, Kelly R., editor. Monarchs in a Changing World: the Biology and Conservation of an Iconic Butterfly.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015.

Science learning hub. Science Learning Hub. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2022, from
https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, December 22). Monarch butterfly. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 2, 2023, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly#:~:text=The%20monarch%20butterfly%20or%20simply%2
0monarch%20%28%20Danaus,butterfly%2C%20and%20is%20considered%20an%20iconic%20pollinator%
20species.
Name: _____________________________

Worksheet Migration Part A

Label all of the geographic locations mentioned above.