Monarchs and Milkweed, Anurag Agrawal
Monarchs and Milkweed, Anurag Agrawal
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Monarchs and Milkweed
A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution

Author: Anurag Agrawal

Narrator: Stephen R. Thorne

Unabridged: 8 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/08/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Monarch butterflies are one of nature's most recognizable creatures, known for their bright colors and epic annual migration from the United States and Canada to Mexico. Yet there is much more to the monarch than its distinctive presence and mythic journeying. In Monarchs and Milkweed, Anurag Agrawal presents a vivid investigation into how the monarch butterfly has evolved closely alongside the milkweed—a toxic plant named for the sticky white substance emitted when its leaves are damaged—and how this inextricable and intimate relationship has been like an arms race over the millennia, a battle of exploitation and defense between two fascinating species.

The monarch life cycle begins each spring when it deposits eggs on milkweed leaves. But this dependency of monarchs on milkweeds as food is not reciprocated, and milkweeds do all they can to poison or thwart the young monarchs. Agrawal delves into major scientific discoveries, including his own pioneering research, and traces how plant poisons have not only shaped monarch-milkweed interactions but have also been culturally important for centuries. Agrawal presents current ideas regarding the recent decline in monarch populations, including habitat destruction, increased winter storms, and lack of milkweed—the last one a theory that the author rejects.

About Anurag Agrawal

Anurag Agrawal is a prolific ecologist and evolutionary scientist who teaches and conducts research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania, surrounded by fields of milkweeds and monarchs fluttering by. Anurag enjoys field work, scientific mysteries, plants of all kinds (especially succulents), and playing squash. Academically, Professor Agrawal has won numerous awards and accolades. He lives with his entomologist wife and two kids, Jasper and Anna.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Amy on May 18, 2018

I read this with my 1oth grade AP Biology class. It covers material that I struggle to get to in class, so it was a great supplement to standard course activities. The students appreciated the numerous illustrations and graphs that helped them grasp material that is fairly advanced for a 16 year old......more

Goodreads review by Jonna on November 30, 2018

Disappointing. A beautiful physical object, with some lovely photos, but the writing is often redundant and could have used some careful editing. It's just not the kind of lively and engaging science writing I look for. Sue Halpern's Four Wings and a Prayer was better.......more

Goodreads review by Nile on March 03, 2018

Agrawal is a true renaissance writer that collects stories from all over science, art, world literature, and history to bring the amazing co-evolution history of multiple organisms to light. The stories are told with plenty of humor, and little self-deprecation to make science (especially organic ch......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on June 30, 2017

This book was a beautiful, in depth account of both Monarchs and Milkweed. Expertly written, it was completely captivating. The amount of information, and the attention to detail, was outstanding without being boring. Honestly, I loved this book. It truly amazed me that despite all the facts that we......more

Goodreads review by Jill on January 07, 2017

A white, yellow, and black-striped caterpillar is transformed into a beautiful black, orange, and multi-colored butterfly. The author traces the migration and transformation from a caterpillar eating a milkweed leaf, to a chrysalis undergoing metamorphosis, to the emerging butterfly and its migratio......more