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First published online June 6, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 2399-2408 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01613
Do monarch butterflies use polarized skylight for migratory orientation?
1 VW Nachwuchsgruppe `Animal Navigation', IBU, University of Oldenburg,
D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany
2 Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada, K7L
3N6
3 Zoological Institute, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190,
CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: henrik.mouritsen{at}uni-oldenburg.de)
Accepted 21 March 2005
To test if migratory monarch butterflies use polarized light patterns as
part of their time-compensated sun compass, we recorded their virtual flight
paths in a flight simulator while the butterflies were exposed to patches of
naturally polarized blue sky, artificial polarizers or a sunny sky. In
addition, we tested butterflies with and without the polarized light detectors
of their compound eye being occluded. The monarchs' orientation responses
suggested that the butterflies did not use the polarized light patterns as a
compass cue, nor did they exhibit a specific alignment response towards the
axis of polarized light. When given direct view of the sun, migratory monarchs
with their polarized light detectors painted out were still able to use their
time-compensated compass: non-clockshifted butterflies, with their dorsal rim
area occluded, oriented in their typical south–southwesterly migratory
direction. Furthermore, they shifted their flight course clockwise by the
predicted 
90° after being advance clockshifted 6 h. We conclude that
in migratory monarch butterflies, polarized light cues are not necessary for a
time-compensated celestial compass to work and that the azimuthal position of
the sun disc and/or the associated light-intensity and spectral gradients seem
to be the migrants' major compass cue.
Key words: navigation, time-compensated sun compass, polarized skylight, dorsal rim area, Danaus plexippus, Lepidoptera
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