Influence of habitat quality and resource density on breeding-season female monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) movement and space use in north-central USA agroecosystem landscapes

 The eastern North American monarch butterfly is at risk of quasi-extinction due, in part, to the loss of breeding habitat in agricultural landscapes of the USA Midwest. Because adult females are not patch residents, egg abundance and distribution across the landscape are a function of their perceptual range, flight directionality, and flight step lengths. Conservation actions that account for habitat use in agricultural landscapes can enhance functional connectivity.
Field-captured females (n=114) were released in a 64-ha area containing restored prairies, grass-dominated fields, and crop fields in Floyd County, Iowa, USA, and two 1,000 m linear north-south sections of grass-dominated roadside along secondary roads (~ 35 ha) with different proximity to prairie habitat in rural Story County, Iowa. Radio-tagged or untagged monarchs were released in areas with high-density, low-density, and zero density of forage and oviposition resources, as well as on habitat edges between high and...