Her Majesty's Desert Throne: The Ecology of Queen Butterfly Oviposition on Mojave Milkweed Host Plants
Grodsky SM, Saul-Gershenz LS, Moore-O'Leary KA and others. Insects, April 2020.
Read the paper Free to read · doi:10.3390/insects11040257
What this paper is about
Danaid butterflies and their milkweeds have been studied in many habitats but barely at all in deserts. This study watched monarchs and queens laying on Mojave milkweed in the Californian Mojave.
It measured which plant traits, which seasons and how much milkweed was available nearby determined where eggs went.
Summarised here from the abstract below. Not the authors’ words.
Abstract
Butterfly-host plant relationships can inform our understanding of ecological and trophic interactions that contribute to ecosystem function, resiliency, and services. The ecology of danaid-milkweed (Apocynaceae) host plant interactions has been studied in several biomes but is neglected in deserts. Our objective was to determine effects of plant traits, seasonality, and landscape-level host plant availability on selection of Mojave milkweed (Asclepias nyctaginifolia A. Gray) by ovipositing monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus plexippus) and queen butterflies (Danaus gilippus thersippus) in the Californian Mojave Desert. We surveyed all known Mojave milkweed locations in the Ivanpah Valley, California (n = 419) during early, mid-, and late spring in 2017. For each survey, we counted monarch and queen butterfly eggs on each Mojave milkweed plant. We also measured canopy cover, height, volume, and reproductive stage of each Mojave milkweed plant. We counted a total of 276 queen butterfly eggs and zero monarch butterfly eggs on Mojave milkweed host plants. We determined that count of queen butterfly eggs significantly increased with increasing Mojave milkweed canopy cover. Additionally, count of queen butterfly eggs was: (1) greater on adult Mojave milkweed plants than on juvenile and seedling plants and greater on juvenile Mojave milkweed plants than on seedling plants; and (2) greater during early spring than mid-spring-we recorded no eggs during late spring. Based on aggregation indices, queen butterfly eggs occurred on Mojave milkweed plants in a nonrandom, clustered pattern throughout the Ivanpah Valley. We provide the first evidence of trophic interactions between queen butterflies and Mojave milkweed at multiple spatial scales in the Mojave Desert, suggesting that conservation and management practices for both species should be implemented concurrently. Given its role as an herbivore, pollinator and prey, the queen butterfly may serve as a model organism for understanding effects of anthropogenic disturbance (e.g., solar energy development) on "bottom-up" and trophic interactions among soils, plants and animals in desert ecosystems.
Abstract reproduced from the published paper, which is licensed CC BY. Copyright remains with the authors.
Key terms
Milkweeds in this paper
- Mojave Milkweed Asclepias nyctaginifolia
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title = {Her Majesty's Desert Throne: The Ecology of Queen Butterfly Oviposition on Mojave Milkweed Host Plants (listing)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/research/her-majesty-s-desert-throne-the-ecology-of-queen-2020/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}