The desire to save the Monarch Butterflies have brought scientists into breeding them in captivity, but new research shows that those that have been grown to maturity in captivity sometimes fail to migrate. Some may be a result of a missing gene while others may be dependent on the lack of understanding for natural environmental cues.
This new fact about Monarch Butterflies in captivity was discovered by a graduate student who tethered a dozen monarchs to a short pole. This is a common practice among researchers to find out the direction at which the insect wants to take when it decides to fly. Tethered monarchs caught in the wild are often headed south. This is the same direction that they take during their annual journey from the United States to Mexico. However, tethered monarchs that were commercially sourced showed its tendency to head into a number of random directions. This included the monarchs that locals grew indoors.
In order to find an understanding of why the monarchs grown in captivity weren't trying to fly south as they should, the researchers looked into the sequenced DNA of the butterflies and compared it with the already-sequenced genomes of the monarch butterfly. Several differences were identified but they couldn't pin it down to just one particular gene. However, even those monarch butterflies with the right genes but were grown in captivity still couldn't identify going south. However, researchers are suggesting that these butterflies know that there are supposed to fly south, but because they were grown indoors, they lacked the environmental cues needed to direct them to the south.
The results of the study were presented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their long evolutionary history has taken the Monarch Butterflies of the US to several continents including Africa, South America, and Europe. Sadly, they seemed to have stopped migrating. The local conditions seem to fit their needs well that they no longer think of migrating. When the weather conditions in an area is something that could stand, they decide to stay.
The research aims at putting in more weight on the report that the Monarch Butterflies have been included in a list of threatened species. Hobbyists who decide to raise Monarchs in captivity may want to consider sourcing them locally to help them identify with the environmental cues. The research also suggests that maybe these Monarch butterflies would be best grown in captivity but in the outdoors.
