Monarch Butterflies with Cora Preston
Posted
on Sep 08, 2015
Our Program on September 8th was an incredible presentation on Mon.JPG)
arch Butterflies presented by Cora Preston. Cora is a Graduate Student at the U of M and working with the Minnesota Monarch Joint Venture Project. She is working with the Minnesota Monarch Lab and joined with 30 groups and organizations across the country to preserve the Monarch Butterfly. Ms. Preston fluently covered the Monarch’s Life Cycle, Migration, Habitat in Mexico, and possible causes of the drastic decline in Monarchs. However so we didn’t get too depressed she talked about things that we each can do to help the Monarch Butterflies and other pollinators.
arch Butterflies presented by Cora Preston. Cora is a Graduate Student at the U of M and working with the Minnesota Monarch Joint Venture Project. She is working with the Minnesota Monarch Lab and joined with 30 groups and organizations across the country to preserve the Monarch Butterfly. Ms. Preston fluently covered the Monarch’s Life Cycle, Migration, Habitat in Mexico, and possible causes of the drastic decline in Monarchs. However so we didn’t get too depressed she talked about things that we each can do to help the Monarch Butterflies and other pollinators. The hour flew by and she was besieged with questions at the end of her presentation. There is way too much to cover in this summary but here a few highlights: The common Milkweed is the essential food source for Monarch. They also lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves and pods – up to 500 eggs in 3 to 5 days. As a transformative creature they go through several stages until the beautiful Monarch appears. Because of the poison in the milkweed plant that they eat, birds leave them alone except for a couple of varieties in Mexico. Monarchs migrate over 3000 miles from Minnesota to Mexico. The same Monarch doesn’t make it the whole way as it takes several generations to get to Mexico and back. While in Mexico they cluster in trees so thickly that they turn the trees their orange-tan color and that is where scientists do the Monarch census. Monarchs do not like the cold so they take-off in September as the hours of daylight begin to diminish. A combination of factors may be affecting the drop in the Monarch population including climate change, loss of environment, pesticides and chemicals in plants and predators.
What can we do? Plant milkweed plants in sunny areas and other nectar bearing plants and flowers and become a Citizen Scientist that report Monarch sightings and other information. Find out more at www.monaarchjointventure.org. Truly a great speaker and program!