A poor substitute for the real thing: captive-reared monarch butterflies are weaker, paler and have less elongated wings than wild migrants.

ABSTRACT: For many animals and insects that are experiencing dramatic population declines, the only recourse for conservationists is captive rearing. To ensure success, reared individuals should be biologically indistinct from those in the wild. We tested if this is true with monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus, which are increasingly being reared for release by citizens and commercial breeders. Since late-summer monarchs should be as migration capable as possible for surviving the arduous long-distance migration, we evaluated four migration-relevant traits across two groups of captive-reared monarchs (n = 41 and 42) and one group of wild-caught migrants (n = 41). Monarchs (descendants of wild individuals) were reared from eggs to adulthood either in a warm indoor room next to

SUBMITTER: Davis AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7211457 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature