Researchers from the University of MA and the University of Washington (UW) have found a way to unlock the secret of how monarch butterflies are able to navigate through vast distances during their annual migration.
Usually, Monarch butterflies use its large and complex eyes to track. With monarch populations decreasing, he also hopes that his research could "help maintain" their number going forward, also stressing the uniqueness of monarch butterflies and their long migrations. Monarch butterflies have an internal clock that allows the expression of certain genes related to navigational abilities. The antennae of the butterflies collect all the necessary information and then relay it to the brain.
Citation: "Neural Integration Underlying a Time-Compensated Sun Compass in the Migratory Monarch Butterfly", Eli Shlizerman, James Phillips-Portillo, Daniel B. Forger and Steven M. Reppert.
They created a model having all this information.
Scientists said the internal Sun compass consists of two control mechanisms.
Shlizerman and his colleagues' final model successfully predicted how the monarch butterflies orient themselves in real life when the creatures were placed in a flight simulator. But the researchers in this new study created a model that simulates what goes on inside monarchs as they make the long trip from one country to another.
Lead researcher Prof Eli Shlizerman, from the University of Washington, explained that, as a mathematician, he wants to know how neurobiological systems are wired and what rules we can learn from them.
"We wanted to understand how the monarch is processing these different types of information to yield this constant behavior - flying southwest each fall", said Shlizerman, who is lead author of the study that was published in the journal Cell Reports.
Shlizerman said the models helped his team find how exactly the animal used that information to keep a constant direction toward southwest each fall. "Our goal was to model what type of control mechanism would be at work within the brain, and then asked whether our model could guarantee sustained navigation in the southwest direction".
Based on their simulations, if a monarch gets off course due to a gust of wind or object in its path, it will turn whichever direction won't require it to cross the separation point.
"And when that happens, their compass points northeast instead of southwest", said Shlizerman.
In a statement provided to TechTimes News, "University of Washington investigators studied how the insects are able to sense which direction to fly - southwest - during their yearly journey". "This gives (the insects) an internal Sun compass for travelling southerly throughout the day".
Biologists were well aware that these butterflies uses the above mentioned two factors to travel, but now with the new finding, the process by which their brain receives and interprets the data is also unveiled.
Like humans, monarchs possess an internal clock, mediated by the natural rhythms of clock genes. The insects fly with the Sun on their left when they have to fly southwest in the morning.
The butterfly's eyes have a unique feature called a separation point.
According to National Geographic: "Every fall, as cold weather approaches, millions of these delicate insects leave their home range in Canada and the United States and begin flying south. They continue until they reach Southern California or central Mexico, more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away!"
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