I am an NSERC funded PhD candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph. Monarch butterflies make a long-distance migration between southern Canada and Mexico each year and identifying the specific threats underlying the population declines over the last two decades is important for protection of the species and development of strategic management plans. As such, I am studying the effect of a major agricultural chemical in the neonicotinoid family, clothianidin, on monarch butterfly development and migration as part of my research in the the Norris and Newman labs.