Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
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Western US populations have collapsed: 4.5m in 80s, 1.2m in 1997, to 100k in 2002, to 2k in 2020.[1][2]
One issue is Monarch larva can only eat two plants: both milkweeds, toxic to their predators. Birds will vomit and then avoid them.[3] However, in recent years not one milkweed plant could be identified without heavy insecticide contamination. Even when no pesticides were used by the landowners or nearby.[4]
The Xerces Society is an excellent starting place to learn and get involved. https://xerces.org/monarchs
[1] https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?_ID=36817 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly#/media/File:... [3] https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-case-of-the-barfi... [4] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2020.00162...
Not sure why, but this season does seem to have more butterflies than usual, at least locally. So maybe it's not just Monarchs.
Additionally, there are three or four generations of them as they migrate. They don't migrate in one huge push. So the ones in mexico will migrate back north a bit, lay eggs, and die. Then that new generation will become adults, migrate north, and lay eggs, and die. Eventually they will reverse and start migrating south, laying eggs, and dying. Finally the last generation makes it to mexico to hang out for a while and avoid the cold, before starting it all over again!
One mutation, and an a species can become resistant to certain toxins. For example, the plant itself is toxic to birds, yet the monarch eats it.
Did some mutation happen, and now the progeny of that lineage are multiplying? If other monarchs die, they'd have lots of food available, so would exponentially grow.
Hmm.
From https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2021-04-01/how-to-fi...:
> Which brings us to the reason why tropical milkweed is such a problem in Southern California. See, tropical milkweed works fine as caterpillar food in colder parts of the United States, when it dies back during the winter, killing any parasites that live on the plants. But in Southern California tropical milkweed stays green and blooming year round. Xerces Society researchers believe this evergreen milkweed confuses normal monarch migration and allows harmful microscopic parasites — Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, or OE — to multiply on the plants. Monarch caterpillars end up eating a lot of this nasty parasite as they devour the leaves and researchers believe OE is sickening the adults, messing up their lifespans, migration patterns and ability to reproduce.
Now that I know how much their population has depleted, these memories feel extremely idyllic to me.
We took it for granted at the time.
I'm in the Chicago area, and I see them in Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin as well. This was a good year for them in my neighborhood.
I bet you'd get a ton of fireflies back if you left a small patch of your yard with longer grasses and wildflowers.
People get annoying at having even areas of less manicured yards, but you'll get a ton more lightning bugs, lady bugs, butterflies, bumble bees, etc.
They used to be so numerous that they defined their own time of day - the magical cooling after mosquitos and before bedtime. Not any more. They are gone and mosquitoes no longer appear to be afraid of the dark.
Might be the Asian Tiger Mosquito[0]. They are active 24/7, unlike their crepuscular North American cousins. They also go for your ankles, so you usually don't get the "mosquito whine" in your ear before you're bitten. They've even evolved to overwinter in freezing conditions.
[0] https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/asian-tiger-mosquito
I can only encourage tourism for this event, a million butterflys flapping their wings definitely makes a sound and hopefully the more tourists that go to see them, the more value is placed on protecting their forestry reserves.
I went to a small national park, a strip between two roads, and it was loaded with butterflies and dragonflies. It was like a disney film. It makes me think that vehicle pollution isn't their biggest threat but rather incecticides.
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If I'm not mistaken, monarchs are poisonous due to their diet, so there's some potential for negative impact if they overrun a niche that some other animal was planning to eat.
It also allows people to think "Yeah, that one particular species had a good year, so everything is fine and we can go back to business as usual".
I for one don't hold my breath.
Many of the solutions for reversing monarch also have positive side effects for other species.
All life is connected. One species can alert you to the deterioration of an entire ecosystem.
(unlike k-selected species like gorillas where the recovery takes many generations and decades...)
When my 19 year old was 2, we used to go to Santa Cruz Natural Bridges State Park, one of the spots they overwinter. The monarchs hung in thick cable-like strands from all the trees. As the day warmed, the sky swarmed with many thousands. Two thousand total is still a pittance. This population remains in dire straits.
But still; go little butterfly!
The season is from November to February.
Carlin talks as if trying to protect species is interfering, wheres the opposite is not?! Humans are interfering no matter what, and it doesn't make sense to pretend otherwise. So if we're interfering no-matter what, let us be circumspect about it.
In the long run, global warming will definitively wreck havoc, so; still bad news.