I read an article on this subject in today's (May 20) Wall Street Journal on
page B2. According to the article the research was conducted exclusively in
the lab. The scientist who performed the study, Dr. John Losey of Cornell,
declared "I'm really leary of making any conclusions yet. We need more
research."

The stuff does seem to kill the Monarchs, but the question appears to be
about how widely they are likely to come in contact with it.

Steve Kimball
Federal Way, WA
skimball at halcyon.com

----- Original Message -----
From: leerentz <leerentz at ix.netcom.com>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 1999 12:48 PM
Subject: Butterflies


> This is a bit off topic, but perhaps it aroused my interest
> because while birding recently along the Texas border, Karen
> and I were entranced by the variety of beautiful
> butterflies. I thought that other Tweeters might be
> interested in an unfortunate side-effect of biological
> tinkering.
>
> We have been assured over and over by scientists that
> genetic engineering and its effects can be carefully
> controlled. Then along comes this story saying that
> unforeseen consequences have occurred.
>
> >>Altered Corn Hurts Butterflies
>
> (STATEWIDE) -- Monarch butterflies in Michigan and
> throughout the country are being hurt by a new strain of
> corn. A report in the scientific journal Nature says pollen
> from the biologically engineered corn is killing the
> butterflies. The pollen is designed to kill over the pest
> corn bore. Monarch butterflies ingest the pollen when it
> drifts to one of their popular foods, milkweeds.<<
>
> This news clip came from an internet news service without
> further links. Have any of you tweeters who also happen to
> be scientists followed this story?
>
> Lee Rentz
> lee at leerentz.com
>
>