In collaboration with Dr. Patrick Guerra’s lab at UC, we have been studying the use of different milkweed species by monarch butterflies as host plants. This started as a COVID project in Theresa’s kitchen but quickly expanded to include more plant species. We are currently writing up our results for publication (with former undergrad Kaitlyn Reimer).
For this project, we looked at larvae and adult body traits when they consumed different species of milkweed:
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
Common Milkweed (A. syriaca)
Butterfly Weed (A. tuberosa)
Honeyvine (Cynanchum laeve)
Tropical Milkweed (A. curassavica)
More recently, we were part of a related study into cost of migration for the monarch, together with Dr. Guerra and his former post-doc Dr. Adam Parlin. We were fortunate to get the cover photo (taken with Theresa’s iPhone in her backyard, on Solidago shortii ‘Solar Cascade’):
The Culley Lab 