Description
The data are collection records of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and associated plant species in the western United States of America (mainly west of the Rocky Mountains). Attributes include collection date, altitude, location description and sex. The records were obtained from museum collections. The collections include Brigham Young University, California Academy of Sciences, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, The University of Utah, and Utah State University. Additional sources include collections and observations from John Hinchliff ’s Oregon Butterfly Atlas (via Oregon State University), Andrew Brower, Robert Pyle, Arthur Shapiro and Larry Speers.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 3,007 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Dingle, H., M.P. Zalucki, W.A. Rochester, & T. Armijo-Prewitt. 2005. Distribution of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus (L.) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), in western North America. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 85: 491-500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00512.x
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is United States Geological Survey. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: fab6edb3-9311-4219-9d32-6114125f86a1. United States Geological Survey publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF-US.
Keywords
migratory species; overwintering; seasonal distribution; associated species; ecological biogeography; migration; Occurrence
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Metadata Provider
- Author
- Custodian Steward
Geographic Coverage
Western north America including locations in Hawaii and southern Canada. The collection locations are recorded to the nearest one-hundredth of a degree, but accuracy will generally be to the nearest few kilometres. The descriptions of the collection sites were often too vague for precise latitudes and longitudes to be determined. Latitude–longitude coordinates were estimated from site descriptions with the Street Atlas USA software (version 7.0, DeLorme, Yarmouth, Maine, USA). Township, range and section values were converted to latitude–longitude coordinates with the TRS2LL program (Martin Wefald, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA).
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [20.038, -156.355], North East [54.833, -95.435] |
|---|
Taxonomic Coverage
No Description available
| Genus | Asclepias (milkweed), Buddleja (butterfly bush, butterflybush), Cosmos (cosmos), Physostegia (lionsheart), Solidago (goldenrod, verges d'or), Tithonia (tithonia) |
|---|---|
| Species | Danaus plexippus (Monarch butterfly), Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed), Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed, butterflyweed), Cleone leitens, Cosmos sulphureus (sulphur cosmos), Verbena bonariensis (pretty verbena, purpletop vervain) |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 1892-06-02 / 2005-08-21 |
|---|
Project Data
No Description available
| Title | Distribution of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus (L.) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), in western North America |
|---|---|
| Funding | This study was supported by Australian Research Council grant A19937166. |
| Design Description | Collection records for monarch butterflies in western North America were collated from museum and private databases and specimen labels. The data sources included collections from the Nevada State Museum (George Austin), Brigham Young University, the California Academy of Sciences, the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, the Bohart Museum (University of California, Davis), the University of Utah and Utah State University. Additional data sources were collections and observations from John Hinchliff’s Oregon Butterfly Atlas (via Oregon State University), Andrew Brower, Robert Pyle, Arthur Shapiro and Larry Speers. In the source datasets, collection sites or observations were variously recorded as latitude–longitude coordinates, descriptions of collecting sites, and coordinates in US township, range and section format. Latitude–longitude coordinates were estimated from site descriptions with the Street Atlas USA software (version 7.0, DeLorme, Yarmouth, Maine, USA). Township, range and section values were converted to latitude–longitude coordinates with the TRS2LL program (Martin Wefald, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA). Altitude data were obtained from the GTOPO30 global digital elevation model (United States Geological Survey, 1996: http://edc.usgs.gov/products/elevation/ gtopo30.html). Long-term average temperature data for USA weather stations were obtained from the CLIM81 dataset (National Climatic Data Center, 1999: http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/normals/usnormalsprods.html). River locations were obtained from the Hydrography Features of the United States GIS layer (United States Geological Survey, 1999: http://www.nationalatlas.gov/mld/hydrogm.html). To create temperature surfaces for mapping, the CLIM81 weather station data were converted to grids by inverse distance weighted interpolation. Because temperature decreases with altitude, temperatures were adjusted to sea level before interpolation and adjusted back afterwards. This was done by addition of a degrees-per-metre value calculated by regression of temperature and altitude differences between nearest neighbour stations. |
The personnel involved in the project:
- Author
Sampling Methods
The data sources included collections from the Nevada State Museum (George Austin), Brigham Young University, the California Academy of Sciences, the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, the Bohart Museum (University of California, Davis), the University of Utah and Utah State University. Additional data sources were collections and observations from John Hinchliff’s Oregon Butterfly Atlas (via Oregon State University), Andrew Brower, Robert Pyle, Arthur Shapiro and Larry Speers.
| Study Extent | Collection records for monarch butterflies in western North America were collated from museum and private databases and specimen labels. |
|---|
Method step description:
- In the source datasets, collection sites or observations were variously recorded as latitude–longitude coordinates, descriptions of collecting sites, and coordinates in US township, range and section format. Latitude–longitude coordinates were estimated from site descriptions with the Street Atlas USA software (version 7.0, DeLorme, Yarmouth, Maine, USA). Township, range and section values were converted to latitude–longitude coordinates with the TRS2LL program (Martin Wefald, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA). Altitude data were obtained from the GTOPO30 global digital elevation model (United States Geological Survey, 1996: http://edc.usgs.gov/products/elevation/ gtopo30.html). Long-term average temperature data for USA weather stations were obtained from the CLIM81 dataset (National Climatic Data Center, 1999: http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/normals/usnormalsprods.html). River locations were obtained from the Hydrography Features of the United States GIS layer (United States Geological Survey, 1999: http://www.nationalatlas.gov/mld/hydrogm.html). To create temperature surfaces for mapping, the CLIM81 weather station data were converted to grids by inverse distance weighted interpolation. Because temperature decreases with altitude, temperatures were adjusted to sea level before interpolation and adjusted back afterwards. This was done by addition of a degrees-per-metre value calculated by regression of temperature and altitude differences between nearest neighbour stations.
Additional Metadata
From the original 2001-11-15 metadata supplied with the dataset to USGS... Lineage: 200-01, Tara Armijo-Prewitt (University of California at Davis). The data were assembled from the collection label data. 2001-01-19, W. A. Rochester. The data were transferred to Oracle. 2001-09-13, W. A. Rochester. Data from the Hinchliff Atlass were added to the database. 2001-11-15, W. A. Rochester. British Columbia data obtained from an unknown source by Myron Zalucki were added to the database. 2015-04-27, E. A. Sellers. Raw dataset provided to USGS for inclusion in Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Associated plant occurrence records were parsed out of and appended to the original dataset. The dataset was processed and standardized for quality and indexing and mapped to the BISON data schema and to the Darwin Core Standard for GBIF harvest. The dataset was first published in the November 2015 BISON Data Load. Attribute accuracy: Most collections dates are recorded to the nearest day, but some are recorded as months or seasons. County names have been checked against a reference list of county names. Logistical consistency: The validity of coordinates and dates was checked before the data were loaded in Oracle. Some collections labelled as being in one state are located elsewhere, and need to be corrected. Completeness: Most records have coordinates and collection dates. Altitude is recorded for only a few records. Sex is recorded for about a third of the records.
| Alternative Identifiers | fab6edb3-9311-4219-9d32-6114125f86a1 |
|---|---|
| https://bison.usgs.gov/ipt/resource?r=ucdavis_western_usa_monarchs |