Different factors limit early- and late-season windows of opportunity for monarch development.

Seasonal windows of opportunity are intervals within a year that provide improved prospects for growth, survival, or reproduction. However, few studies have sufficient temporal resolution to examine how multiple factors combine to constrain the seasonal timing and extent of developmental opportunities. Here, we document seasonal changes in milkweed ()-monarch () interactions with high resolution throughout the last three breeding seasons prior to a precipitous single-year decline in the western monarch population.

Growth and survival of the superorganism: Ant colony macronutrient intake and investment.

In this study, we used two common ant species ( and ) to assay how they translate variation in the diet (both in composition and frequency) into growth. We measured colony development for over 8 months and measured several phenotypic traits of the worker caste, and examined whether forager preference corresponded with diet quality. Optimal colony growth was a balance between survival and growth, and each of these was maximized with different nutrient regimes.