The ability of 100 million Monarch butterlies to find their way to Mexico to spend the winter baffled scientists. The original explanation was that their brains were wired for the navigation but now there appears to be a mechanism which involves the antennae.
The insects navigate according to the position of the Sun, adjusting their calculations as it appears to move across the sky.
A paper in the journal Science shows the location of the clock is the antennae (of Monarch butterflies) rather than the brain.
...when the butterflies' antennae were removed the insects no longer flew in the right direction...the antennae contain both a light sensor and a clock...The group with the black painted antennae all flew together in the wrong direction, while those with the transparent paint were unaffected.
"I think it's becoming more and more clear that the antennae have a number of functions that are independent from being odour detectors. They can function as ears, sensing sound and changes in barometric pressure, and now we can add to the list this function as a timepiece."
Butterfly 'GPS' found in antennae
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