According to the recent study, scientists say that the Monarch butterflies use a 24-hour “clock” in their antennae to help navigate the 4,000km to overwinter in Mexico. Every autumn about 100 million Monarch butterflies migrate to the south. The insects navigate according to the position of the Sun, adjusting their calculations as it appears to move across the sky.
The journal Science shows the location of the clock is the antenna rather than the brain. Scientists say the finding is a surprise as it has always been thought that the butterflies used a 24-hour clock in their brains in conjunction with their “Sun compass” when they migrated. But some observations from 50 years ago indicated that when the butterflies’ antennae were removed the insects no longer flew in the right direction.
Team of researchers from University of Massachusetts Medical School, US, was also interested in studying the role of the antennae in butterfly social reactions as Monarchs are extremely gregarious when they migrate.
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i think so. butterfly has GPS system