California overwintering monarch butterflies contain both pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and their N-oxides. Analysis of 76 individual monarchs by TLC, HPLC, GLC, and GC-MS has shown the presence of three types of PAs, the saturated diester sarracine, the saturated monoester 7-angelylplatynecine, and the unsaturated dialcohol retronecine. Monarchs arriving at the overwintering site in Santa Cruz, California, showed a wide variation in both the type and amount of PA present. Those sampled after a PA-containing plant (Senecio mikanioides) had bloomed at the site showed an altered PA profile. While the plant was found to contain sarracine and 7-angelylplatynecine, which are nontoxic to mammals, the monarchs showed an increase in retronecine levels, a toxic PA, after the plant bloom. Apparently monarchs utilize PA-containing plants both en route to their overwintering site and at the site, and potentially alter those PAs to forms toxic to mammals. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.
CITATION STYLE
Stelljes, M. E., & Seiber, J. N. (1990). Pyrrolizidine alkaloids in an overwintering population of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in California. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 16(5), 1459–1470. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01014081
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