is the monarch butterfly a poisonous butterfly? how was it related to the controversy of the Bt maize?

Answer 1

It has poisonous chemicals called cardenolides (also called cardiac glycosides), but only if you try to eat it. It aquired the poisonous substance via the milkweed it ate as a caterpillar.

Answer 2

Monarch butterflies contain chemicals that give them a bitter taste so their would-be predators don't want to eat them. I don't believe they are actually poisonous.

There was a concern that Bt corn pollen was having a negative effect on monarch caterpillars. The idea was that the caterpillars were eating milkweed leaves covered with the altered pollen. The website listed below asserts that the Bt/monarch scare was not true.

Answer 3

The Monarch is a common poisonous butterfly that eats poisonous milkweed in its larval stage and lays its eggs on the milkweed plant.

Answer 4

If you're talking about genetically modified seed
for corn,soybeans, oats, and many other grains,
these GMO plants are killing most of our insect
population...both good and bad. It is wiping out
our honey bees. I don't know of any true butterfly
that is poisonous--maybe if its eaten, but who eats
one.