Bon voyage

KRISTIN BARRON
Posted 10/31/18

It has been a great year for monarch butterflies. I am hearing everyone comment on the number of the beautiful orange-and-black butterflies that have been seen this year in the river valley. While my …

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Bon voyage

Posted

It has been a great year for monarch butterflies. I am hearing everyone comment on the number of the beautiful orange-and-black butterflies that have been seen this year in the river valley.

While my information is purely anecdotal, organizations such as “Monarch Watch,” an educational and research program based at the University of Kansas, are reporting an uptick in the 2018 monarch population. “It’s been more than a few years since we have seen a monarch migration as promising as the one that is taking place at this time,” wrote “Monarch Watch” founder and director Chip Taylor in early September.

Part of this resurgence is due to a campaign to help the struggling population, which has seen its numbers plunge drastically (up to 82%) in the last 20 years. Decreasing numbers are due to many reasons, including the decline of milkweed, the monarch caterpillar’s sole food plant. Local initiatives like the annual Barryville Bike Ride and Seed Toss aim to encourage milkweed growth.

In addition, use of herbicides as well as logging practices in the mountains of central Mexico where the monarchs migrate overwinter have contributed to loss of habitat.

This fall, the students on my dormitory floor at Delaware Valley Job Corps in Callicoon, NY, where I work, were part of the conservation effort too. Raising monarch caterpillars is an age-old activity in classrooms and homes across the country. It’s educational, inspirational and fun. It is a good way to watch the lifecycle of the butterfly up close.

We were lucky enough to have one of the three caterpillars that I brought in emerge as a butterfly. We set up the caterpillars (munching away on their milkweed) in a makeshift plastic tote outfitted with a screen top in the brightly lit dorm office for all the girls to see.

While two of the caterpillars formed chrysalises, the third died trying to pupate. One chrysalis turned black very early in its development and never hatched (perhaps indicative of a virus or parasite). “Nature is cruel,” I said.

At one point, both of the chrysalises fell down and I managed to tie them back up to the screen covering with dental floss. Newly emerged butterflies must be able to hang down in order to fully expand their wings before they harden. Failure to do so can result in deformities that prohibit flying.

Finally, late Sunday evening, our only still-viable butterfly graced us with its presence—as fresh and vivid as a butterfly can be. The girls were interested to hear of their butterfly’s upcoming journey to Mexico. “I wish it would take me with it,” they said. “I want to go too,” I said. It would certainly be a trip of a lifetime to go see the millions of hibernating butterflies in their Mexican preserve.

The girls took the butterfly outside and let it fly off on Tuesday morning after feeding it sugar water while we were waiting for the rain to stop. We wish it bon voyage as it joins with other monarchs making their long, risky migration to the Oyamel fir forests of Mexico.

butterflies, callicoon, Job Corps

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