Amy Hughes

In the midst of what some are calling an “insect apocalypse,” we search for explanations to this rapid decline in global insect populations. Chemical insecticides, utilized and intensified over the past seventy years to bolster crop production and feed a growing human population, are likely one of the main culprits. To explore the effects of neonicotinoids (hereafter neonics), the most widely used class of chemical insecticides, on pollinating insects, we will use the monarch butterfly as a model species. Half of our lab-reared butterflies will consume nectar containing neonics and the other half untreated, control nectar. To monitor and compare flight activity and feeding frequency between the two treatments, we will use free-flight cages equipped with video cameras. To analyze the effects of neonics on flight capabilities, we will use flight mills that test individual butterfly flight duration, distance, and frequency. The implications for this study are wide-ranging, pertaining to the function and persistence of insects, pollinators, and migratory species that inhabit areas in and around agricultural lands of the United States.

Amy Hughes is a first-year M.S. student in the Biology Department at William & Mary. She is generally interested in human impacts on ecological processes, and she is drawn to broad-scale ecological research with wide-ranging applications. She currently studies the effects of agricultural insecticides (neonicotinoids) on monarch butterfly flight capabilities, as "neonic" presence throughout North America may negatively affect monarch migration and thus survival and persistence of the species.