Migrating Monarch Butterflies Straggle Into Mexico Jim Robbins - The New York Times
go to original November 27, 2013

People Willing to Spend Billions to Keep Monarch Butterflies Around (GeoBeatsNews)

On the first of November, when Mexicans celebrate a holiday called the Day of the Dead, some also celebrate the millions of monarch butterflies that, without fail, fly to the mountainous fir forests of central Mexico on that day. They are believed to be souls of the dead, returned.

This year, for or the first time in memory, the monarch butterflies didn't come, at least not on the Day of the Dead. They began to straggle in a week later than usual, in record-low numbers. Last year's low of 60 million now seems great compared with the fewer than 3 million that have shown up this year. Some experts fear that the spectacular migration could be near collapse.

"It does not look good," said Lincoln P. Brower, a monarch expert at Sweet Briar College in Virginia.

It is only the latest bad news about the dramatic decline of insect populations.

Read the rest at The New York Times

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