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1. Delicious? Monarch caterpillars belly up to the table and eat their vegetables – milkweeds – despite the presence of toxic substances in the milkweed's latex fluid (milky sap) and its stems, leaves and roots.
True
False
2. Good? Dogbane beetles and monarch caterpillars compete as herbivores on common dogbane, an Illinois native plant which can exude a milky sap as does milkweed.
3. Sweet? The milkweed longhorn beetle sustains itself upon the nectar of milkweed flowers.
4. Butterflies can taste with their feet (tarsi).
5. Prescribed milkweed? Milkweed’s genus name Asclepias was coined from the name of the Greek god of healing and medicine, but the plant’s poison content rendered it useless as a medicine historically.
6. Within Illinois the last brood from breeding monarchs undergo a reproductive diapause (delay in development) and become the butterflies who will migrate.
7. Caterpillars from the swallowtail family of butterflies (Papilioninae) can thrive upon milkweed.
8. The tall green milkweed is an Illinois state-endangered plant.
9. The milkweed tussock moth (Euchaetes egle) is an exotic or non-native species in Illinois.
10. Asclepias species are pollinated by various bees, ranging from tiny halictid bees to bumble bees, and by a variety of butterflies, ranging from small skippers to big monarchs.
11. Purchasing monarch butterflies and releasing them may be detrimental to wild monarch populations.