Monarch butterfly uses magnetic, Sun compasses: study
24 Jun 2014
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AFP / Mario Vazquez
A file photo taken on December 10, 2008 shows
monarch butterflies at the Sierra del Chincua
sancturay in Angangueo, in the Mexican state of
Michoacán[/font]
The North American monarch butterfly uses the Sun as well as Earth's magnetic field as navigational tools for its famous long-distance migration, scientists said Tuesday.
The insects with their characteristic orange-and-black wings flutter thousands of kilometres each year from the United States and southern Canada to the Michoacan mountains in central Mexico, where they overwinter.
The butterflies, whose Latin name is Danaus plexippus, have long been known to use a type of solar compass in the brain.
Yet, curiously, they are also able to migrate when skies are heavily overcast, which suggested co-reliance on a magnetic compass.
Now, biologists from Massachusetts say they have found evidence for this, making the butterfly the first long-distance migratory insect thought to use magnetic navigation.
They placed monarchs in a flight simulator, which they surrounded with different artificial magnetic fields to test the insects' directional sense.
More:
http://www.afp.com/en/news/monarch-butterfly-uses-magnetic-sun-compasses-study
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