Why Fly if Saving Lipids?
Discussion of Challenge Question #5 Dr. Calvert asked last week, If the purpose is to conserve their lipid reserves, why do you suppose monarchs fly in blizzard proportions the first chance they have after a long period of dormancy? Once again these West Virginia students in Mr. Phillips’s Class had an idea: Jonathan and Brett thought that they wanted to stretch their wings. This is exactly what Dr. Calvert suspects! But this is just speculation. The experiments havent been done yet, but people are working on it, he says. The idea is that exercise may be really crucial to them. When we visited last Tuesday, it was the first warm day after a long period of cool, rainy weather. I dont think monarchs can tolerate long periods of dormancy, and need to exercise their flight muscles. This may be some basic physiological need at the cellular level to maintain muscles. Have you seen what happens to the muscles underneath a cast that dont get exercised? The muscles ‘atrophy’ (shrink). This may
