Curator finds, names new species of climbing milkweed
A new species of climbing milkweed has been named by Alexander Krings, curator of the North Carolina State University Herbarium (also NCSC, its international Index Herbariorum abbreviation). The species - Gonolobus tenuisepalus Krings - was first collected in the tropical rainforests ...Monarch butterflies, corn pollen coexist in cornfields
... evolution and behavior. The researchers examined milkweed and monarch densities in various habitats--cornfie.... Every week, researchers examined several hundred milkweed plants and noted the number of monarch larvae and, in cornfields, whether pollen was being shed. In...Scientists push enzyme evolution into high gear
...ar to fat-modifying enzymes they had isolated from milkweed plants and cat's claw vines. These slow-acting enzymes had evolved from a similar enzyme that was much more efficient, but modified a larger fat. To figure out how to turn the parent enzyme into one that could modify smaller fats without losing effic...Genetic engineered crop studies questioned
...wed low mortality even whenMonarch larvae were fed milkweed that had the highest levels of Bt pollen thatwould be encountered in the field. Shelton and Roush note that it is unlikelythat these high Bt pollen levels would be encountered by the insects in thefield, and they say that "few entomologists or weed ......endangered." In the laboratory tests, monarchs fed milkweed leaves dusted with so-calledtransformed pollen fro...Texas, other Gulf Coast states andFlorida, seeking milkweed on which to lay their eggs and feed. By late May orearly June, the second generation of adults has ...