Monarch Health

🌡️Higher temperatures may make monarch butterflies more vulnerable to parasites, according to new research from the University of Georgia. The study found that monarchs exposed to elevated temperatures were 22% less tolerant of infection.

🤒“What does tolerance of an infection mean? If you have the flu, it’s the difference between you being in the hospital or just having a stuffy nose,” said Sonia Altizer, lead author of the study and entomology department head in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Warmer temperatures cause toxic milkweed to lose its protective effect on monarchs, thereby increasing infection rates.

Published in Ecological Entomology, the study was led by Isabella Ragonese as part of her doctoral dissertation in the UGA Odum School of Ecology and Christopher Brandon as part of his undergraduate honors thesis.

Additional co-authors include Joselyne Chavez, Jacobus de Roode and UGA ecology associate professor Richard Hall.