Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle During Yearly Migration
Monarch numbers have been on the decline for the last 15 years, and is primarily due to the lost of milkweed. Milkweed has been on the decline because herbicides used to protect GMO and herbicide-tolerant crops, such as corn as well as soybeans, kill milkweed.
Milkweed is the natural diet of he monarch caterpillars. The monarch butterflies are voracious eaters and without enough milkweed to feed them, they cannot survive.
Millions of monarch butterflies make a yearly migration from Canada to their wintering grounds in the forests of Mexico, but their numbers have been drastically diminishing especially during the last few years.
The 3000 mile journey and takes 4 generations and the fascinating life cycle of each generation.
Scientists have gauged the monarch’s number by analyzing their numbers while they were assembled at their wintering grounds in Mexico.
The monarch butterflies covered 0.67 hectares in Mexico’s woodlands during the 2013-2014 winter, a drastic decrease of 44 percent from 2012.
The average monarch butterfly coverage from 1994-2014 was 6.39 hectares, which is almost ten times that of the 2013-2014 estimate.
Luckily scientists have conducted surveys that indicate most Americans think saving the monarch butterflies is important and are willing got spend billions of dollars to plant milkweed to save the monarch butterflies and to increase their numbers.
