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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Japanese Beetles’ Feeding On Milkweed Flowers May Compromise Efforts To Restore Monarch Butterfly Habitat, Adam M. Baker, Daniel A. Potter
Japanese Beetles’ Feeding On Milkweed Flowers May Compromise Efforts To Restore Monarch Butterfly Habitat, Adam M. Baker, Daniel A. Potter
Entomology Faculty Publications
The eastern North American migratory population of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) is in serious decline. Habitat restoration, including adding millions of host plants to compensate for loss of milkweed in US cropland, is a key part of the international conservation strategy to return this iconic butterfly to sustainable status. We report here that Popillia japonica, a polyphagous, invasive beetle, aggregates and feeds on flowers of Asclepias syriaca, the monarch’s most important larval food plant, reducing fruiting and seed set by >90% and extensively damaging milkweed umbels in the field. The beetle’s ongoing incursion into the monarch’s …
The Role Of Sociality And Disturbance In Shaping Elk (Cervus Canadensis) Population Structure, Brittany L. Slabach
The Role Of Sociality And Disturbance In Shaping Elk (Cervus Canadensis) Population Structure, Brittany L. Slabach
Theses and Dissertations--Biology
Investigating how and why individuals interact is an important component to understanding species ecology. The type and patterning of relationships (social structure) provides pertinent insight into how ecological factors such as spatial heterogeneity of resources and predation influence associations between individuals. Many taxa exhibit temporally fluid association patterns, where individuals associate with a variety of others at different rates. Ungulate species exhibit prime examples of highly fluid grouping patterns and individuals form both temporary and long-term associations. The effects of human disturbance on ungulate behavior are well documented and these changes are further exacerbated during the hunting season. Species such …