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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Configuration And Location Of Small Urban Gardens Affect Colonization By Monarch Butterflies, Adam M. Baker, Daniel A. Potter
Configuration And Location Of Small Urban Gardens Affect Colonization By Monarch Butterflies, Adam M. Baker, Daniel A. Potter
Entomology Faculty Publications
Ecological theory predicts that specialist insect herbivores are more likely to locate and colonize host plants growing in relatively sparse or pure stands compared to host plants growing amongst diverse non-host vegetation. We tested the hypothesis that increasing the apparency and accessibility of milkweed (Asclepias spp.) host plants in small polyculture gardens would boost their colonization by the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), an iconic native species of conservation concern. We established replicated gardens containing the identical mix of milkweeds, flowering nectar sources, and non-host ornamental grasses but arranged in three different spatial configurations that were monitored for …