There are over 100 different species of milkweeds that are considered native to North America, and even more found worldwide. Not only is milkweed their favorite food but also the only food they will ever eat. Some of these visitors are exclusive milkweed lovers – what we call specialists. Even milkweed roots are food for insects feeding below the ground. Lavishly illustrated with more than eighty color photos and images, Monarchs and Milkweed takes readers on an unforgettable exploration of one of nature's most important and sophisticated evolutionary relationships.The milkweeds ( Asclepias sp.) are an incredible resource for insects and other arthropods – their flowers are buzzing with pollinators lapping up nectar, their leaves covered with hungry herbivores, followed by roaming predators looking for nourishment. He evaluates the current sustainability of monarchs and reveals a novel explanation for their plummeting numbers. Agrawal presents current ideas regarding the recent decline in monarch populations, including habitat destruction, increased winter storms, and lack of milkweed-the last one a theory that the author rejects. Agrawal delves into major scientific discoveries, including his own pioneering research, and traces how plant poisons have not only shaped monarch-milkweed interactions but have also been culturally important for centuries.

But this dependency of monarchs on milkweeds as food is not reciprocated, and milkweeds do all they can to poison or thwart the young monarchs. The monarch life cycle begins each spring when it deposits eggs on milkweed leaves. In Monarchs and Milkweed, Anurag Agrawal presents a vivid investigation into how the monarch butterfly has evolved closely alongside the milkweed-a toxic plant named for the sticky white substance emitted when its leaves are damaged-and how this inextricable and intimate relationship has been like an arms race over the millennia, a battle of exploitation and defense between two fascinating species. Yet there is much more to the monarch than its distinctive presence and mythic journeying. The fascinating and complex evolutionary relationship of the monarch butterfly and the milkweed plant Monarch butterflies are one of nature's most recognizable creatures, known for their bright colors and epic annual migration from the United States and Canada to Mexico.

Monarchs and Milkweed by Anurag Agrawal