ArticleThe Journal of experimental biology2022
Stimulus-dependent orientation strategies in monarch butterflies.
Article in The Journal of experimental biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- From skylight cues to magnetic fields: the toolkit of insect long-distance navigation.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Review
- The diversity of lepidopteran spatial orientation strategies - neuronal mechanisms and emerging challenges in a changing world.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Review
- Emerging tools to advance neuroethology in butterflies and moths.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Review
- Innate visual attraction before, during and after escape from adverse substrates in carpenter ants.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Drosophila require both green and UV wavelengths for sun orientation but lack a time-compensated sun compass.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Monarch butterflies memorize the spatial location of a food source.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Neural representation of goal direction in the monarch butterfly brain.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Impact of central complex lesions on innate and learnt visual navigation in ants.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Article
- The influence of stimulus history on directional coding in the monarch butterfly brain.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Insects are well known for their ability to keep track of their heading direction based on a combination of skylight cues and visual landmarks. This allows them to navigate back to their nest, disperse throughout unfamiliar environments, as well as migrate over large distances between their breeding and non-breeding habitats. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), for instance, is known for its annual southward migration from North America to certain trees in Central Mexico. To maintain a constant flight route, these butterflies use a time-compensated sun compass, which is processed in a region in the brain, termed the central complex. However, to successfully complete their journey, the butterflies' brain must generate a multitude of orientation strategies, allowing them to dynamically switch from sun-compass orientation to a tactic behavior toward a certain target. To study whether monarch butterflies exhibit different orientation modes and if they can switch between them, we observed the orientation behavior of tethered flying butterflies in a flight simulator while presenting different visual cues to them. We found that the butterflies' behavior depended on the presented visual stimulus. Thus, while a dark stripe was used for flight stabilization, a bright stripe was fixated by the butterflies in their frontal visual field. If we replaced a bright stripe with a simulated sun stimulus, the butterflies switched their behavior and exhibited compass orientation. Taken together, our data show that monarch butterflies rely on and switch between different orientation modes, allowing the animal to adjust orientation to its actual behavioral demands.
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