PRESENTATION RECORDED HERE
Monarchs are in Decline – How Can We Help?
Speaker: Robert L. “Bob” Allen, M.S., Adjunct Professor of Biology, Santiago Canyon College & Orange Coast College & Research Associate in Entomology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
TWO WAYS TO WATCH
1) Zoom: To watch the presentation on your computer or phone via Zoom you must register in advance at this link. Registration on Zoom has a capacity so register now for the best ‘seats’. You do not need a Zoom account to register for or watch the presentation.
Register for the presentation: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MW1Fdh2EQkmS2yBZzc1RZg
2) YouTube: If you want to watch the presentation without registration it will be live streamed to BugBob’s WildWorld YouTube page beginning at 7:00pm. There is no limit to participants viewing the presentation on YouTube.
BugBob’s WildWorld YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL-amXHBcKhzp9b7L1OIGtA
Questions for the presenters will be selected by a moderator from the chat and comment sections of both Zoom and YouTube.
❀ Download PROGRAM SUMMARY ❀
DESCRIPTION
You’re probably familiar with the monarch, that large burnt-orange butterfly with black & white markings. They’re in trouble, very very serious trouble. As caterpillars, they feed only on milkweeds (members of the family Apocynaceae). As adults, they feed only on nectar.
But their habitats are being destroyed. Diminished habitats means that milkweed and nectar sources are both diminished. What’s a hungry monarch to do?
In an effort to provide milkweed for caterpillars, well-meaning people often plant non-native tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica. But that plant promotes survival of a protozoan parasite that weakens and/or kills monarchs. Using that species of milkweed is often “loving monarchs to death”. Plant California native milkweeds.
Adult monarchs and other nectar-feeding insects need more flowers from which to take nectar. In southern California, this means we need to provide nectar sources all year long. Plant California native nectar sources and, *gasp*, possibly supplemented with non-natives.
We will discuss these and other factors in the decline and survival of monarchs and other nectar-feeders.
Bob “BugBob” Allen is a biologist, author, photographer, and instructor in southern California. He studies and photographs pollinators & pollination, milkweeds, and specialty arthropods such as monarch butterflies, lacewings, & rain beetles. He is a Research Associate in Entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Research Associate at California (Rancho Santa Ana) Botanic Garden. At California Botanic Garden, he co-designed, helped construct, and ran the Butterfly Pavilion. He is lead author with Fred Roberts of the book, Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains.
