Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.28 (659 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B01M2BTRNO |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 126 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-08-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Love it! Lynn Faust I love Anurag Agrawal's Monarch and Milkweeds book! Written in a friendly, readable style, Agrawal describes the surprisingly one-way relationship between two remarkable organisms, one benefiting and one constantly fine tuning and evolving new ways to protect itself. He explains in a clear, engaging way what is known and what is about to be known and what remains to be discovered in the field of monarch and milkweed interactions. The book is a wonderful blend of the history and biography of past and present mo. Written by a renowned scientist who has studied this beautiful organism for years If you are an appassionato of the fabled Monarch butterfly, or even of butterflies in general, you won't want to pass up this book. Written by a renowned scientist who has studied this beautiful organism for years, it's a clearly written and up-to-date account of what we know and what we don't know about this mysterious beauty. Monarch caterpillars are destined by evolution to eat only milkweed plants -- yet those same milkweed plants are poisonous to the caterpillars. They have no choice in the matter. Once y. Page-turner! This book is a real page-turner. Anurag Agrawal does a phenomenal job presenting a fascinating story about iconic monarch butterflies and milkweeds and more broadly about ecology.The book covers a wide range of topics: how milkweeds protects themselves from monarchs, arms race between monarchs and milkweed, how the monarchs in turn defend themselves from their enemies, monarch butterfly migration, and the conservation of monarchs to name a few. All of these topics are put in a wider scientific context by bring
Monarch life history on a toxic host laden with cardenolides and largely dependent on migrating vast distances to tiny overwintering sites and back again is the backbone of the book. Agrawal’s splendid book is no less epic, taking us from heart toxins and sodium pumps to climate change and illegal logging. "A lively, highly informative introduction to significant research in ecology that highlights the importance of conserving our natural habitats."--Kirkus"This comprehensive and colorful illustrated study of monarch biology and behavior offers another reason to admire the versatile insect: its long and successful symbiotic relationship with the otherwise toxic milkweed plant. This is important science about an iconic and sadly declining insect, made readable by enthusiastic, personal prose."--Richard Jones,
The fascinating and complex evolutionary relationship of the monarch butterfly and the milkweed plantMonarch butterflies are one of nature's most recognizable creatures, known for their bright colors and epic annual migration from the United States and Canada to Mexico. Yet there is much more to the monarch than its distinctive presence and mythic journeying. Agrawal delves into major scientific discoveries, including his own pioneering research, and traces how plant poisons have not only shaped monarch-milkweed interactions but have also been culturally important for centuries. In Monarchs and Milkweed, Anurag Agrawal presents a vivid investigation into how the monarch butterfly has evolved closely alongside the milkweed—a toxic plant named for the sticky white substance emitted when its leaves are damaged—and how this inextricable and intimate
. He lives in Ithaca, New York. Anurag Agrawal is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Entomology at Cornell University