Mystery of monarch butterfly migration solved

U.S. scientists have found a way to explain the secret of one of nature's most famous journey, the great migration of monarch butterflies from southeast Canada to Mexico year after year.

In a study published in the journal Cell Reports on Friday, scientists from the University of Washington, Massachusetts and Michigan announced that they have modeled the neural control mechanisms in the butterfly's brain, solving the mystery of how monarch butterflies are able to navigate through vast distance during their annual migration.

Leading researcher Professor Eli Shlizerman, from the University of Washington, said that as a mathematician, he wanted to understand how the creature processes different types of information during their long-distance migration, and what people can learn from such systems.

Monarch butterflies watch the sun, but that's not enough to lead them where they need to go. They also need the time of day, the study said. They have a kind of internal clock that keeps track of the daily go-round.

The team recorded neural signals coming from monarch butterfly's antenna nerves to keep the track of the clock information, as well as the information from the insect's eyes to account for sun position.

Then they used that data to build a model circuit to show the neural control mechanisms for the "clock" and "sun position" that help the butterfly point itself southwest.

Each Autumn, millions of monarch butterflies travel over 4000 km from southeast Canada and the United States to escape from the cold and hibernate in Mexico. They usually rest in six Mexican sanctuaries in the central and western part of the Latin American country. Endi