PUBLICATIONS | SCIENCE SERIES

BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY
edited by Stephen B. Malcolm and Myron P. Zalucki

Science Series 38
Published by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
419 pages, 139 illustrations (2 in color), 100 tables, bibliography, index, 1993.
Price $90.00 cloth cover (ISSN 0079-0943)

Illustration Credit
A blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is confronted by toxic and conspicuously colored queen and monarch butterflies. Painting by Rudolf Freund. © 1969 by Scientific American, Inc.

BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how the organism Danaus plexippus functions, providing information necessary for an objective approach to conserving the species. Forty-four papers written by 50 authors from North America, Europe, and Australia present a diverse array of research on biological and conservation topics.

The papers in the volume embrace four main themes of monarch biology: communication and mating, host plant exploitation and chemical defense, migration, and overwintering. Specific topics covered include biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, physiology, behavior, ecology, and evolution of the species. Research in this book contributes to the definition of the monarch's migratory life history, which has been designated a "threatened phenomenon," the first such designation given by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

The monarch butterfly is one of those few species that excites the interest not only of scientific researchers but of large portions of the general public. Its conspicuous appearance-- combined with the more remarkable aspects of its life history, such as migrations and chemical defense against natural enemies-- has made it an object of attention in almost every corner of its wide range: from the Americas, Australia and the Pacific islands, Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, the Canary Islands of the Atlantic, and most recently western Europe. It is fitting that this volume integrates the work of biologists, biochemists, and conservationists from three continents.

"Although this book is about the Monarch butterfly, it has articles and ideas with application to a variety of fields and areas of interest. One concern of mine is that the value to other fields will be lost because potential readers may judge from the title that it does not contain anything relevant to them. I would argue the opposite: that this book is valuable to biologists (and I use this term in the broadest sense, not just referring to professional biologists) in many areas of endeavor. I recommend it highly."
DEANE BOWERS, University of Colorado Museum and E.P.O. Biology, Campus Box 334, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309; writing for Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society.