Abstract
This is a reply to the comment from Davis [...].
Highlights
IntroductionPopulation Study on Winter Breeding Monarch Butterflies, Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in the Urban South Bay Area of San Francisco, California” [2]
This is a reply to the comment from Davis [1], who commented on our work “FirstPopulation Study on Winter Breeding Monarch Butterflies, Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in the Urban South Bay Area of San Francisco, California” [2].Briefly, Davis contested our suggestion that monarchs overwintering as a breeding population in the south Bay area of San Francisco may still contribute to northward and eastward migration during spring
While it is impossible to know the size of the winter breeding population that occurred in the urban areas of California in 2020/2021, we considered it possible that it may have been much larger than the total number of monarchs counted at traditional overwintering sites in 2020 [2]
Summary
Population Study on Winter Breeding Monarch Butterflies, Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in the Urban South Bay Area of San Francisco, California” [2]. Davis contested our suggestion that monarchs overwintering as a breeding population in the south Bay area of San Francisco may still contribute to northward and eastward migration during spring. His primary argument was that our tagged monarchs had shorter wings than migratory fall monarchs in the eastern and western US and were similar in size to individuals in non-migratory monarch populations. We show that large wings are not a pre-requisite for spring migration in monarch butterflies
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