Now this is exciting news! I posted a couple of weeks back on how Painted Lady and Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars were sent aboard the space shuttle. The Painted Lady Butterflies hatched from their Chrysalises a couple of weeks ago, and now it’s been reported that a Monarch emerged from its Chrysalises as well. According to this article on Space.com http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091208-space-monarch-butterflies.html the Monarch Butterfly took about 15 minutes for its wings to dry versus the 3-5 minutes it takes here on Earth. On a less exciting note, it was mentioned that the Monarch Butterflies were only expected to live about 4 days because of the cramped quarters where they are being raised.
Here’s something else that’s interesting. Take a look at this photo showing the Monarch Chrysalises. Don’t they look a little strange? To me it looks as though the Chrysalises are deformed. Maybe that’s because of living in microgravity (or even better, maybe someone associated with this research can comment).
Another question I have for anyone who may know the answer. In this experiment, did they not plan on providing any food source for these Butterflies (correction, apparently they did have a nectar source according to this article)? Have they ever tried to grow Milkweed in space? I think it would have been an interesting experiment to have these Monarchs emerge from their Chrysalises, float over to a Milkweed plant that perhaps was growing well under artificial light, sip on some nectar from the plant (or the Gatorade as it turns out (see article above), then lay a few hundred eggs, then repeat the cycle.
And yet one more question that comes to mind. If Monarch’s use their antennae as a sort of GPS for their migration, what happens when they are in space? I’m not sure if sunlight even is available (viewable through a window or something?) on the Space Station, but it might make for an interesting experiment at some point. If the Monarchs could somehow have a view of the Sun, would they attempt to fly in some certain direction?
Then again, I’m no space scientist and for all I know to do this type of experiment in space would cost millions of dollars. I also don’t understand gravity (or lack thereof), or how the Space Station works, so maybe my great research ideas are just a bunch of nonsense.
Anyone have any additional thoughts or comments?
I just found this link that has a brief video showing the Monarch Caterpillars. It’s pretty interesting (if you are into Butterflies) watching these two Monarch Caterpillars fight with one another.
Related posts:
by texdr
no comments