Summary: Eastern North American migratory monarch butterflies exhibit migratory behavioral states in fall and spring characterized by sun-dependent oriented flight.However, it is unclear how monarchs transition between these behavioral states at their overwintering site.Using a modified Mouritsen-Frost flight simulator, we Everything Else confirm individual directionality and compass-based orientation (leading to group orientation) in fall migrants, and also uncover sustained flight propensity and direction-based flight reinforcement as distinctly migratory behavioral traits.By testing monarchs at their Mexican overwintering sites, we show that overwintering monarchs show reduced propensity for sustained flight and lose individual directionality, leading Crocks to the loss of group-level orientation.
Overwintering fliers orient axially in a time-of-day dependent manner, which may indicate local versus long-distance directional heading.These results support a model of migratory flight behavior in which modular, state-dependent switches for flight propensity and orientation control are highly dynamic and are controlled in season- and location-dependent manners.