Kelsey Deal

As urban areas continue to expand information is needed to understand the impact of urban growth on the environment. For example, cities break up the landscape into suitable and unsuitable patches for a number of species. Host and parasite interactions can be used to study the effects of altered land use on wildlife communities.

 

The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and its parasites will be used as a model system to examine this relationship in an urban context. The rate of parasitism will be compared to landscape characteristics at both a local and national scale. Locally, caterpillars will be collected from milkweed patches. Data will also be analyzed nationally using information from the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project.

 

These results will provide understanding for the response to the decline of the monarch population by identifying possible factors that influence the relationship between monarch butterflies and their parasites.