The Last Monarch Butterfly: Conserving the Monarch Butterfly in a Brave New World
Ask people to name a species of butterfly and they will most likely mention the monarch. Found across most of the U.S., Central America, and northern South America, the monarch is a big, showy butterfly that is famous for the fact that it migrates. Spending the five coldest months of the year in a few winter roosts in Mexico (with the smaller, western population wintering in California), the butterflies move north with the spring after the emergence of their only food plants, the milkweeds. Schappert, a butterfly researcher and author (A World for Butterflies, 2000), follows the monarchs from their winter roosts as they fly north, mating along the way and laying eggs as they find appropriate plants. Two or three generations later, the late-summer butterflies begin the journey south, traveling distances as great as 4,350 miles. Monarchs face threats at every stage of their lives, a major one being the logging of the forests in the Mexican highlands, where the vast winter roosts are found.Nancy BentCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved