Hey @HoldMyBeer @gregmat
Could you please help me understand why the answer to this question is A and not C?
If we nullify C i.e. say that the vast majority of monarch butterflies that are laying eggs in a given region are in fact coming from different areas of origins, then how will we connect the presence of a particular type of glycosides back to the butterfly’s origin?
A on the other hand is less information i.e. even if Monarch butterflies feed on different types of glycosides upon maturity, we don’t know if they will retain them as the caterpillars did upon maturity?
Option C suggests that most monarch butterflies in a given region will have traveled there from a single region. While this may be true, it does not necessarily strengthen the argument that glycosides in a mature monarch butterfly can be used to determine its place of origin based on the region-specific glycosides they consumed as caterpillars.
The argument relies on the assumption that the glycosides present in the butterfly’s body are a result of the milkweed they consumed as caterpillars in their place of origin, rather than from other sources in their travels. Option C does not provide any new information that strengthens this assumption.
Whereas, Option A suggests that mature monarch butterflies do not feed on parts of milkweed that contain glycosides, which means that the glycosides in their bodies likely come from the milkweed they consumed as caterpillars in their place of origin.
This strengthens the argument because it supports the assumption that the glycosides in a mature monarch butterfly’s body can be used to identify the place of origin, which relies on the idea that the glycosides consumed by caterpillars in different regions are unique. If mature monarch butterflies do not feed on glycosides in their travels, then the glycosides in their bodies must have come from the region in which they consumed milkweed as caterpillars. Therefore, option A is the correct answer.
p.s. Don’t use @ ; as the purpose of forums in the first-place is to have an open-ended discussion and tagging just hiders this use-case !
