No more monarchs...

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by Pollux V, Feb 15, 2002.

  1. Pollux V Ra Bless America Registered Senior Member

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    http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/02/13/mexico.butterfly.ap/index.html

    That's it. The most common, gorgeous butterfly is gone. I heard on the news that the population will be unable to recover. I suggested cloning, that maybe eventually more could be introduced into the wilderness, but hundreds of millions of these insects are dead.

    Dare I suggest global warming? Any thoughts?
     
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  3. goofyfish Analog By Birth, Digital By Design Valued Senior Member

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    I don't know... while it might be true, that statement seems kind of alarmist in nature. The article actually starts out stating that the data for population numbers is wrong, so how are we to know what the total effect will be?

    Peace.
     
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  5. goofyfish Analog By Birth, Digital By Design Valued Senior Member

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    Additionally...

    If the populations that fly north each year from Mexico were to disappear, the mysteries of that migration might never be solved, but I’m not sure that the species as a whole is in danger because other, smaller populations of monarchs that did not migrate to Mexico could be found elsewhere, such as in the western United States.

    A rather rational view from a group that is concerned with monarch conservation posted, in part:
    Peace.
     
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  7. Pollux V Ra Bless America Registered Senior Member

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    The report I posted was from CNN but I saw a quick segment on CBS. They said that the population would "never be able to recover."
     
  8. goofyfish Analog By Birth, Digital By Design Valued Senior Member

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    Ahhhh... mainstream media. Be the first to report it whether you've gotten all the facts or not.

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    Peace.
     
  9. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    Pollux V ...

    Who cares?

    They didn't taste that good anyway.

    By the way, what's happening to the rest of the butterflys?
    Hardly saw any last Summer.

    Take care

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    Last edited: Feb 17, 2002
  10. kmguru Staff Member

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    That is true. Last year supply was low in my neck of the woods. This year we plan to plant several bags of wild flower seeds on our property hoping to attract a few more. Our bird supply has declines sharply. We have 5 feeders always full but not much action. But we got a lot of grasshoppers last year that ate up my roses. The ecosystem is getting off balance.
     
  11. Congrats Bartok Fiend Registered Senior Member

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    Somehow I think that the absence of pretty butterflies and the newfound prevelance of ugly white ones suggests a new trend- global whitewashing. The poor, beautiful, monarchs are still there, encased in a shell of bland indifference that offers no comfort, no suggestions, and no hope. Perhaps the royalty of the insect world has been vindicted from its collective ego of flaunt.

    I never liked the white ones. They were always there. By the barn, under the flowerless Wisteria tree, in the bamboo forest by the dried-up stream. You saw them, there they were, so you could see me in the butterfiles.

    When whiteness came, it came in the form of all-encompassing, overpowering blinding heat. And so with it came the over-powering collapse of color in the favor of white butterflies.

    So with it came the drying of the stream, the cutting of the bamboo, the moving of one house to another, the sudden prevalence of tarmac, hot warm asphalt where ego-obsessed young girls tell me "I'm so courageous." With the blinding heat of the absence of color came the sudden cutting of my childhood cord.
     
  12. Congrats Bartok Fiend Registered Senior Member

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    That's Mulish Minianimalism for you- meaning (surprisingly relevant) from mindless, ego-ridden gibbersih. WE should all embrace Mulism as the route out from our collective garbage dump of ego.
     
  13. Pollux V Ra Bless America Registered Senior Member

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    I don't see what's wrong with the white or black ones, they're all just as much fun to chase through fields of sharp tall grass, all the while hoping you won't trip on a dirt hump in the ground and stand up with not only cuts and bruises all over your body but tiny slugs leaving mucus trails on your shirts and jeans.

    But monarchs have quite the color, and I believe that I saw plenty of them last spring and early summer. After that I don't really recall witnessing the flight of a monarch.
     
  14. Congrats Bartok Fiend Registered Senior Member

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    Hmm...maybe it's because after Summer comes fall, then Winter, etc. They do tend to fly away when the cold weather comes.

    I can remember once being in the woods behind my house and I saw this gigantic blue butterfly- I must have been 8 or 9, and it just seemed so out of place, as if it came from behind the trees when no one was awake...I really am happy with the absolute normal humdrum things, I never needed to see that blue butterfly. But I did, and I obviously remembered it.


    What does it all mean?
    Butterflies are very unique insects.
    So what is the priority for them?
    Blue over white, Monarch over Black?
    Butterlies are here, they will be for a long time.
    It's a shame the Monarch may die off pretty soon.
    But that blue one- it's coming back.
     

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