scholarly journals Fire creates host plant patches for monarch butterflies

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 968-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen A. Baum ◽  
Wyatt V. Sharber
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Danaus Plexippus ◽  
Monarch Butterflies ◽  
Plant Availability ◽  
Southern Great Plains ◽  
Asclepias Viridis ◽  
New Generation

Monarch butterflies ( Danaus plexippus ) depend on the presence of host plants ( Asclepias spp.) within their breeding range for reproduction. In the southern Great Plains, Asclepias viridis is a perennial that flowers in May and June, and starts to senesce by August. It is locally abundant and readily used by monarchs as a host plant. We evaluated the effects of summer prescribed fire on A. viridis and the use of A. viridis by monarch butterflies. Summer prescribed fire generated a newly emergent population of A. viridis that was absent in other areas. Pre-migrant monarch butterflies laid eggs on A. viridis in summer burned plots in late August and September, allowing adequate time for a new generation of adult monarchs to emerge and migrate south to their overwintering grounds. Thus, summer prescribed fire may provide host plant patches and/or corridors for pre-migrant monarchs during a time when host plant availability may be limited in other areas.

The Impact of Affective Heuristics in Decision-Making Regarding the Implementation of Prescribed Fire on Private Rangelands in the Southern Great Plains, USA

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
J. Kelly Hoffman ◽  
R. Patrick Bixler ◽  
Morgan L. Treadwell ◽  
Lars G. Coleman ◽  
Thomas W. McDaniel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Southern Great Plains ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Host Plant Availability and Nest-Site Selection of the Social Spider Stegodyphus dumicola Pocock, 1898 (Eresidae)

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Clémence Rose ◽  
Andreas Schramm ◽  
John Irish ◽  
Trine Bilde ◽  
Tharina L. Bird
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Nest Site ◽  
Nest Site Selection ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
Protective Function ◽  
Plant Availability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Terrestrial Habitats

An animals’ habitat defines the resources that are available for its use, such as host plants or food sources, and the use of these resources are critical for optimizing fitness. Spiders are abundant in all terrestrial habitats and are often associated with vegetation, which may provide structure for anchoring capture webs, attract insect prey, or provide protective function. Social spiders construct sedentary communal silk nests on host plants, but we know little about whether and how they make nest-site decisions. We examined host plant use in relation to host plant availability in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola Pocock, 1898 (Eresidae) across different arid biomes in Namibia and analysed the role of host plant characteristics (height, spines, scent, sturdiness) on nest occurrence. Host plant communities and densities differed between locations. Spider nests were relatively more abundant on Acacia spp., Boscia foetida, Combretum spp., Dichrostachys cinerea, Parkinsonia africana, Tarchonanthus camphoratus, and Ziziphus mucronatus, and nests survived longer on preferred plant genera Acacia, Boscia and Combretum. Spider nests were relatively more abundant on plants higher than 2 m, and on plants with thorns and with a rigid structure. Our results suggest that spiders display differential use of host plant species, and that characteristics such as rigidity and thorns confer benefits such as protection from browsing animals.

scholarly journals Transcriptomics of monarch butterflies ( Danaus plexippus ) reveals that toxic host plants alter expression of detoxification genes and down‐regulate a small number of immune genes

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (22) ◽  
pp. 4845-4863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen‐Hao Tan ◽  
Tarik Acevedo ◽  
Erica V. Harris ◽  
Tiffanie Y. Alcaide ◽  
James R. Walters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Plants ◽  
Danaus Plexippus ◽  
Monarch Butterflies ◽  
Immune Genes

scholarly journals Transcriptomics of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) reveals strong differential gene expression in response to host plant toxicity, but weak response to parasite infection

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Hao Tan ◽  
Tarik Acevedo ◽  
Erica V. Harris ◽  
Tiffanie Y. Alcaide ◽  
James R. Walters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Host Plant ◽  
Danaus Plexippus ◽  
Transcriptional Response ◽  
Resistance Mechanisms ◽  
Parasite Infection ◽  
Chemical Defenses ◽  
Monarch Butterflies ◽  
Plant Toxicity ◽  
Plant Toxins

ABSTRACTHerbivorous insects have evolved many mechanisms to overcome plant chemical defenses, including detoxification and sequestration. Herbivores may also use toxic plants to reduce parasite infection. Plant toxins could directly interfere with parasites or could enhance endogenous immunity. Alternatively, plant toxins could favor down-regulation of endogenous immunity by providing an alternative (exogenous) defense against parasitism. However, studies on genome-wide transcriptomic responses to plant defenses and the interplay between host plant toxicity and parasite infection remain rare. Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are specialist herbivores that feed on milkweeds (Asclepias spp.), which contain toxic cardenolides. Monarchs have adapted to cardenolides through multiple resistance mechanisms and can sequester cardenolides to defend against bird predators. In addition, high-cardenolide milkweeds confer medicinal effects to monarchs against a specialist protozoan parasite (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha). We used this system to study the interplay between the effects of plant toxicity and parasite infection on global gene expression. Our results demonstrate that monarch larvae differentially express several hundred genes when feeding on A. curassavica and A. incarnata, two species that are similar in nutritional content but differ substantially in cardenolide concentrations. These differentially expressed genes include genes within multiple families of canonical insect detoxification genes, suggesting that they play a role in monarch toxin resistance and sequestration. Interestingly, we found little transcriptional response to infection. However, parasite growth was reduced in monarchs reared on A. curassavica, and in these monarchs, a small number of immune genes were down-regulated, consistent with the hypothesis that medicinal plants can reduce reliance on endogenous immunity.

The life history, distribution and morphological updates of horned poppy feeder Acentrus histrio (Schoenherr, 1837) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Curculioninae)

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
LEVENT GÜLTEKİN ◽  
MELEK GÜÇLÜ ◽  
NESLİHAN GÜLTEKİN ◽  
BORIS KOROTYAEV
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Host Plant ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Female Genitalia ◽  
Morphological Description ◽  
Weevil Species ◽  
Young Leaves ◽  
New Generation ◽  
First Time

The augmented morphological description of the weevil species Acentrus histrio (Schoenherr, 1837) is provided and supplied with photographs of the terminalia and genitalia of both sexes. Female genitalia are described for the first time. Glaucium grandiflorum Boiss. & A. Huett and Glaucium corniculatum (L.) Rudolph (Papaveraceae) are reported as the host plants in Turkey. The adults emerge from the soil in very early spring, locate the host plant, feed on young leaves and buds, mate on the host plant, and females deposit eggs inside the seed capsules. The larvae feed with seeds, mature larvae leave capsules entering soil to pupate, and adults of the new generation hibernate in the soil at the root base of the host plant. This species is univoltine and produced one generation annually in eastern Turkey. Acentrus histrio is newly recorded for Azerbaijan, and A. boroveci Košťál, 2014, for Tajikistan.

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