They’re among nature’s most delicate creatures, but Monarch butterflies are marvels of endurance. Their annual passage between Canada and Mexico – with Kansas City in the middle of the 2,500-mile flyway – is the greatest of all seasonal migrations, with those on the return trip four generations removed from the millions that began the cycle.
How does the returning Monarch know to go back to the same habitats that its great-great-great-grandparent left? Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, examines the biology and miraculous migration of the distinctive, orange and black insect in an illustrated presentation.
Ramaswamy formerly oversaw the entomology department at Kansas State University.
