At last - sunshine!

Today dawned bright and clear. The garden is flooded with golden sunshine. What a joy to see it after almost a week of cold, drizzly days. It's still cold today - in the 40s - but one doesn't mind so much when the sun is shining.

I went out to the garden to plant a couple of nandinas I had bought last week and a pot of Thanksgiving chrysanthemums whose blooms had faded. As I was working to plant one of the nandinas near the patio, I looked up and got a wonderful surprise.

I've told you about some of the Monarch caterpillars I've been monitoring recently. After waiting all year to find such caterpillars on my milkweed plants, in the last few weeks, the plants have been overrun with them to the point where most of the leaves are now gone. But I had not seen any evidence of the caterpillars' progression to the next stage of their metamorphosis. Until today, when I looked up from digging a hole to see this hanging on the back of one of my patio chairs.

A Monarch chrysalis!

This is the only one I have found so far, but then I haven't been out in the garden much lately. Surely, there must be others around and perhaps I will discover them. If the sun stays out.

Back inside, after I uploaded my pictures of the bright green beauty, I searched for a video I had seen earlier of the development of the butterfly, from egg to butterfly. It's a lovely and informative video and here it is.

Say goodbye

(Cross-posted from The Nature of Things.)

I've often written here and elsewhere about the plight of the Monarch butterflies and of the bees. They are iconic insects that can be recognized by most people, even those that are fairly ignorant about other insects, and they are hugely important cogs in the ecosystem.

The migration of the Monarch is a tale which borders on the magical. A fragile insect which makes the long trek all across the continent from Canada to Mexico is something which catches people's imagination as a thing that is really quite marvelous.

The Monarch's migration is particularly important and is cause for celebration in Mexico where the butterflies have traditionally wintered. A story in The New York Times this week ("The Year the Monarch Didn't Appear") emphasized that important cultural link.

On the first of November, when Mexicans celebrate a holiday called the Day of the Dead, some also celebrate the millions of monarch butterflies that, without fail, fly to the mountainous fir forests of central Mexico on that day. They are believed to be souls of the dead, returned.

The story in the Times goes on to report how that return on November 1 did not happen this year. The Monarchs did not return then. It was only a week later that they began to straggle in in record-low numbers.

Last year saw the lowest ever recorded numbers of the butterflies to winter in the Mexican mountains at about 60 million. So far this year, only about three million have shown up. Some Monarch experts express fears that the spectacular migration of the colorful insects could be about to end. What a loss that would be!

Think of the Passenger Pigeons which in the early part of the 1900s blotted out the sun for days with their mass migrations. And yet, before the century was one quarter gone, humans had completely wiped out the species. Passenger Pigeons were extinct. Could the same thing happen to Monarch butterflies?

There are several factors that are related to the decline in Monarchs, as well as in bees and in insects in general.

Perhaps the number one enemy of the butterflies, bees, and other insects is the profligate use by farmers and gardeners of nicotine-based pesticides called neonicotinoids which kill indiscriminately. But even if those insecticides were no longer used, butterflies and bees would still be in trouble.

A huge problem for insects, as indeed for all animals, is the loss of native vegetation, i.e., the loss of appropriate habitat, across the United States. Typically, all the native plants in an area may be uprooted and destroyed for housing developments, roads, shopping centers, parking lots, etc. The landscaping that replaces them may consist of  imported, invasive species that the local wildlife cannot utilize. Thus it becomes a food desert for those critters.

Another problem is the prevalence of farming with Roundup. This is a herbicide that kills virtually all vegetation except for crops that are genetically modified to survive its application. As a result of its usage, millions of acres of native plants, including milkweed, the plant on which Monarchs are completely dependent for the nourishment and survival of their caterpillars, have been wiped out.

Of course, another big challenge which bees, in particular, face is disease. Viruses and parasites may weaken them to the point that they are not able to overcome the other stressors in their lives - for example, flying farther afield to find food when the supplies closer at hand have been wiped out.

The plight of the butterflies and bees is getting more press and more attention from the public and there are a number of organizations that continue to try to educate us about the need to preserve native vegetation and to plant native plants in our landscapes. Gardeners across the country, for example, are being encouraged to plant more milkweed in their gardens to try to compensate for all the native vegetation that has been lost to the bulldozer or to Roundup.

It is hard, if not impossible, to replace all those millions of acres that have been lost. One is chilled by the thought that in our lifetimes we might have to say goodbye to the Monarch butterfly, as our forbears did a century ago to the Passenger Pigeon.

But meantime, keep planting that butterfly weed. It is better to light one candle, however small, than to curse the darkness or to give in to despair for the fate of the beautiful Monarch. 

Female Monarch on milkweed.

Threatened wildlife

I found two disturbing reports in my inbox this morning. The first is from Journey North, the latest status report on this year's Monarch butterflies. The second was an announcement of the release of a new report from the American Bird Conservancy regarding the threat to wildlife from the world's most widely used pesticides, nicotine-like chemicals called neonicotininoids. Both are bad news for backyard wildlife.

First, the Monarchs. We've known for a while that the numbers are disastrously down this year. This is primarily a result of weather conditions in the past year that were unfriendly to the production of new butterflies. The drought and excessive heat last summer meant fewer butterflies produced, meaning there were fewer of them to overwinter in Mexico. The area of forest covered with Monarchs last winter was only 3 acres, compared to an average in the past of 17 acres. Obviously, that meant fewer of the colorful fliers heading north this spring.

But then the spring turned out to be unusually cool, even cold in the Midwest, which delayed the butterflies' migration northward. Some areas in the northern part of the butterflies' range are only now seeing their first migrants.

All of this, of course, has a domino effect. Fewer butterflies will be produced this summer. It is likely that the overwintering numbers again will be quite low. And next summer...?

The main enemy of the Monarch in all of this seems to have been unfavorable weather, but the role of pesticides cannot be overlooked.

The ABC's new report makes clear that the neonicotinoids have the potential to affect entire food chains. One of the co-authors of the report, Cynthia Palmer, emphasized that "the environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible (my emphasis) mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns."

These pesticides' toxicity to bees and other insects, including butterflies, has been well-documented and has received the most concern and attention from regulatory institutions worldwide. But the new report makes clear that this toxicity extends to birds and terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates as well as other wildlife. For example, a single kernel of corn coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird. Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with a neonicotinoid can fatally poison a bird.

Moreover, the report concludes that neonicotinoid contamination levels in both surface- and groundwater in the United States and around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates. The report goes on to assert that part of the problem is that EPA assessments have greatly underestimated this risk, using scientifically unsound, outdated methodology that has more to do with "a game of chance than with rigorous scientific process."   (You can read the entire report here.)

The ABC is urging its members and other interested parties to contact their congressional representatives and ask them to support the Save America's Pollinators Act of 2013 as a first step in beginning to address this problem. Even if the act is passed and becomes law and neonicotinoids are better regulated, the persistence of these chemicals already in the environment does not bode well for the future of threatened wildlife like the Monarch butterfly. But we have to start somewhere.

The dying Monarch

Lately, the news for the Monarch butterfly has been all bad. It seems that every week we have a new story detailing the depressing news of the beautiful butterfly's decline. Illegal logging, rampant ecotourism, and unusually harsh winters have damaged the butterfly's winter sanctuary in Mexico. Mid-America's big factory farms' reliance on the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides have killed butterflies and their caterpillars and have destroyed the stands of milkweed which caterpillars need to feed on in order to grow and transform into butterflies. And looming over all of this are the effects of global climate change which is reeking havoc with weather patterns, causing extended droughts and, paradoxically, historic floods, and contributing to raging wildfires which damage the butterfly's food source and kill butterflies. It is estimated that today's population of the butterflies is approximately one-fifteenth of what it was in 1997.

This marks the third straight year of decline for this migrant butterfly which is a treasure of all three nations of North America. Indeed, its population is at the lowest levels ever reliably measured. There seems a very real possibility that the Monarch butterfly could become extinct. At the very least, its population will be a mere shadow of what it once was. As recently as 1994, wintering butterflies in the Mexican mountains covered 22 acres. By 2003, the area covered was down to 12 acres. During this past winter, it was only 2.9 acres. That is just shocking.

The best known fact about the Monarch is its migratory habit. It crosses the continent twice a year. It takes four generations of the butterfly to travel from Mexico to Canada. In order to make that long trek, it must have milkweed to nourish caterpillars into the next generation. You can easily see what the destruction of all those stands of milkweed across middle America has done to the prospects for the successful completion of the migration.

Of course, gardeners across the country have been trying to fill the void by planting more milkweed in their gardens. I have about twenty plants of the stuff and I just added three large plants this past week, because my old plants died back in the winter and were just emerging from their nap. Their leaves were not big enough to nourish many caterpillars. This is probably the most important thing that we, as gardeners, can do to help the butterfly. That and refusing to use chemical pesticides and herbicides in the garden. These can be death not only to butterflies but to so many useful and beautiful critters that make our gardens their habitat.

Many wildlife conservation groups have also made the Monarch's survival a priority. The World Wildlife Fund, for just one example, has sponsored the census of the butterfly and is looking for ways to aid it and to mitigate the forces aligned against its survival.  The organization Journey North, which tracks many migrating species including hummingbirds and other birds as well as butterflies, has invaluable information on its website regarding the Monarch's life cycle and what it needs to survive. They also encourage citizen scientists to report Monarch sightings to that website so that the migration can be tracked. (I've made my reports and I encourage you to do the same.)

Everyone loves the Monarch. No one wants to see it perish. So, why is it in such trouble? It seems to be trouble that is altogether of human origin, even the changing climate. Can we summon the will to change our practices in order to give the butterfly a fighting chance? If we can, we may save more than a butterfly.

A Monarch egg on milkweed leaf. You can see the tiny embryo inside. 

 Monarch caterpillars on milkweed, their only source of food.

  I don't have grandchildren, but if I ever should, I would hope they would still be able to see this sight.

A welcome garden visitor

A most welcome spring visitor came fluttering into my garden today. It was a migrating female Monarch butterfly and she was on a mission.

She went straight to my butterfly weed and proceeded to deposit her eggs on the leaves. Here you can see her curved thorax as she bends it to touch her ovipositer to the leaf, attaching an egg there.

I think she visited every single butterfly weed plant I have in the garden and, as best I could discern, she was leaving eggs on all of them.

She often hung upside down to deposit her eggs on the underside of a leaf.

This lady appeared to be in good shape. Her wings were completely intact, not tattered and torn as is often the case with these migrants.

My visitor continued her tour through my butterfly weed for perhaps the better part of an hour. She was not to be distracted by any of the nearby flowers. She was only interested in green leaves. With any luck at all, perhaps those green leaves will soon have some tiny caterpillars crawling on them. I just hope they fare better than last year's crop of Monarch caterpillars.

Last year, I had a plague of wasps that hunted the caterpillars in my garden all spring and summer. I don't think a single Monarch caterpillar survived to become a butterfly. I haven't seen any wasps around so far this spring so I'm hoping this generation might have a window of opportunity to develop and mature before the predators find them. I've seen very few of the migrating butterflies in my garden this spring. I would love to see the population increase here with the help of my plants.

Wordless Wednesday: October visitor

Reporting on migrating Monarchs

The Monarch butterfly migration is under way and Journey South, the citizen science project that tracks them, wants you to report your sightings.  Your observations can help the scientists get a more complete picture of how the migration is proceeding.  You can sign up and sign in at the link above and start sending them your information.

The Journey South people urge us to make a report at least once a week as long as Monarchs are present.  You can report anytime you see a Monarch.  I don't personally have any confirmed sightings of one of the butterflies yet, although I thought I might have seen one today.  We were on State Highway 249 headed north and I saw a butterfly high above the traffic, as migrating Monarchs typically fly, and it was headed southeast.  But I couldn't see it well enough to be sure that is what it was, so I won't report it.

The Journey South site has several maps which help to illustrate and track the migration.  It is very interesting to check in on them once or twice a week just to see the progress of the fliers.

I'm not really expecting much from this year's migration.  I'll be happy just to encounter a few of the beauties in my yard.  If they do visit me, they will find plenty of milkweed on which to feed and to lay their eggs.  I'm hoping I'll have some of that action to report along the way.

If you haven't already signed on to Journey South, I encourage you to do so and take part in this important project.  The bits of information which you can provide may be just what the scientists are looking for.

Will genetically modified crops be the death of the Monarch butterfly?

I came across a very worrying article in the science section of The New York Times this week.  It was about the effect upon Monarch butterflies of genetically modified crops grown in the Midwest.   Some scientists think it may be the final nail in the beautiful butterfly's coffin.

I admit I haven't followed the debate over genetically modified crops all that closely, but in reading this story I learned that, according to the Department of Agriculture, 94 percent of soybeans and 72 percent of corn being grown in the United States today are genetically modified to be herbicide-tolerant. Roundup won't hurt them.  Farmers can spray as much Roundup or its generic form, glyphosate, as they want on their crops to control weeds and it will not harm their soybeans or corn.

But, as it happens, one of the most widespread weeds across the entire area of the Midwest where corn and soybeans are grown is milkweed, the butterfly weed that Monarch and Queen butterflies depend upon for their reproduction.  At least it used to be one of the most widespread weeds.  Now that Roundup is liberally sprayed all over the area, it has virtually disappeared with the result that many migrating Monarchs find no safe place to lay their eggs.

A group of scientists has completed a study of the herbicide's effect on the butterfly population and they've recently published their paper online in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity.  Lincoln Brower, an entomologist at Sweet Briar College, who has done studies of the decline of Monarch populations on their wintering grounds in Mexico, is quoted in the Times article as saying about Roundup/glyphosate, "It kills everything. It is like absolute Armageddon for biodiversity over a huge area."

There are many factors that are conspiring against the continued existence of the Monarch.  The increasing prevalence of extreme weather conditions in Mexico in winter as well as extremes of weather on their migration routes; urban development across North America that has removed much of the butterfly weed that they formerly depended upon; the widespread use of pesticides and herbicides in suburban and urban gardens; and now this.  They are such fragile creatures.  How much more can they stand?

And we might well consider Mr. Brower's statement about the herbicide killing everything.  There are other "weeds" in the habitat that are depended on by other creatures.  The herbicides kill them, too, and in so doing may doom the other creatures that utilize them.

It is clear to me that the chemicals used in modern farming and, all too often, in suburban gardens are a very mixed bag.  Certainly they do make the farmer's difficult job of weeding his crops easier, but at what cost?  And do we really want to pay that price?   DDT was a very effective chemical, too.  It did destroy populations of mosquitoes.  It also almost got rid of the Bald Eagle, the Osprey, the Peregrine Falcon, and the Brown Pelican, to name just a few of the affected species.

Is there anything that we as individual gardeners can do to help the Monarch?  We can pay attention to the debate about genetically modified crops and make our views known to our elected representatives.  Just be aware that Monsanto and other chemical companies are also busy making their views known to those same representatives, and they are throwing millions of dollars at them to make sure that their voices are heard.

Beyond that, we can do as the organization Monarch Watch suggests and plant more butterfly weed in our own yards, and, of course, refrain from using any of those chemicals that may be detrimental to butterflies.  I've done all that and yet I've seen very few Monarchs in my garden all year and none since the middle of spring.  Something is happening here.  What it is may not be exactly clear, but I don't think it's good news for the Monarch.  

Earth Day 2011: Asclepius and Asclepias

In ancient Greek religion, Asclepius was the god of medicine and healing. He represented the healing aspect of the medical arts and he had five daughters who were goddesses of five of those arts: Hygieia (Hygiene), Iaso (Medicine), Aceso (Healing), Aglaea (Healthy Glow), and Panacea (Universal Remedy). These names have come down to us through history and philology and we still honor them in today's language.

We don't know whether there was ever a historical Asclepius, although some historians speculate that there was and that the mythological character is based on him. Whatever the truth of the matter, the mythological character was and is well-known to students of the classics, of which Carl Linnaeus was one.

You may remember Linnaeus from your high school biology class. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Taxonomy" because he was the genius who came up with the system for giving scientific names to plants and animals. His system has stood the test of 300 years time and is still in use today.

When Linnaeus was casting about for a name for the milkweed genus, he was aware that these plants have many uses in folk medicine, and so what better source for a name for them than a derivative of the name of the ancient god of medicine? Thus the milkweed became Asclepias.

There are over 140 known species in the genus, Asclepias, but the one that is most often grown in our gardens is A. curassavica or tropical milkweed.


One of the tropical milkweeds blooming in my garden this spring.

The native milkweed that I grew up seeing around our yard and along roadways and in fields was a bushy plant with bright orange flowers. This is A. tuberosa. I have a couple of those in my garden, but they don't really grow as well here as the tropical milkweed does. They were slow to return after winter and are now about 3-4 inches high but are a long way from blooming.

The major interest of gardeners in milkweed today is not for its folk medicinal qualities but for its value to butterflies. Milkweed is well-known as the host plant for some species of much-loved and highly desirable butterflies, namely the Monarch and the Queen.


Hungry Monarch caterpillars munch their way through a tropical milkweed plant. Even if the plant loses all its leaves to the caterpillars, it will come back and grow new leaves.


The Queen caterpillar likes milkweed equally as well as the Monarch and, as you can see, looks very similar, except that it has a third set of antennae in the middle of its body.


Here, in shadow, you can discern that third set even more clearly.

Habitat gardeners, and, indeed, just about all gardeners, love butterflies and so we happily plant the host plants that we know they need to nurture and develop their caterpillars, even though we realize those plants are going to be eaten up. A raggedy looking milkweed plant in a perennial border is a sign of success to a gardener. (Wish I could claim that about some of my other raggedy looking plants!)

As Monarchs, as well as other butterflies, have suffered setbacks in recent years because of natural events and human-caused catastrophes, gardeners throughout the country have responded by planting more and more milkweed. By now, there is a well-defined trail that Monarchs can follow through gardens right across North America, from the mountains of Mexico to the plains of Canada.

On this Earth Day 2011, I celebrate all those gardeners who care enough to plant milkweed, even though it may not be the prettiest plant in the garden and it may go through its life with leaves full of holes. It is a plant that lives up to the root of its name - a god of medicine and healing. It has the capacity to help heal the environment and to heal the gardener's spirit as we happily watch those caterpillars destroying our plants and know the beauty that is to come.


Queen butterfly on milkweed.


The Monarch.

Wordless Wednesday: Monarch egg with embryo

Slooowly, they come

The news at Journey South sort of confirms my own observations and experience of the Monarch migration this fall. Namely, that it has been slow in Texas.

Large numbers of Monarchs were reported farther north and moving our way in August and September, but for the most part the numbers in Texas have been rather sparse. The question is, have the butterflies somehow slipped by without being seen, or are they still loitering out there somewhere and perhaps will be showing up later this month? The people at Journey South characterize last week as "surprisingly quiet."

In my own yard, the pace of the migration actually picked up last week. As regular readers may recall, I had only seen one Monarch in the yard this fall prior to then. But, during last week, two more showed up on different days. Neither of them tarried for very long. They fed for a while on the nectar plants as I watched and then moved on.

So my grand total of sightings in my yard this fall has been three. In other years, I would have had tens or even hundreds by now. I have no doubt that other Monarchs have passed through my yard unseen. Still, since I am out there every day for most of the day, it seems unlikely that any large numbers could have passed by without my seeing them.

Interestingly, as we were coming back from a trip to Bolivar Peninsula last Friday, late in the afternoon, we encountered a few migrating Monarchs after we headed north on SH 249. I counted four on the ten mile (about) stretch between the Beltway and our house. They were flying singly, high above the roadway, and each one was headed west.

The thing is, in order for the Monarchs to get to their wintering grounds in Mexico, they have to pass through Texas. Some pass through what is called the "Central Flyway" and others follow the "Coastal Flyway" and we are squarely in the middle of that. Most of the butterflies from the southeastern part of the country follow the Coastal Flyway, so it may well be that we will see greatly increased numbers of the fliers over the next two to three weeks.

It is unclear how much the Monarchs have been able to rebuild their population since last winter's devastation. Once they have all reached the wintering area, scientists can get a better count and determine how things are going for them.

Meantime, we sit and wait. Our milkweed is all planted and waving enticingly in the breeze. The table is set. Will the guests show up?


A visitor from last October.

A notable garden visitor

While putting in some red cabbage plants in a bed in the veggie garden on Tuesday morning, September 28, I stood up to relieve my aching back and wipe my sweaty brow and looked around me. And saw my first Monarch butterfly of the autumn in my yard.

I was, of course, in gardening mode, not photography mode, so there was no camera around to record the event. I could only stand and watch and admire, and record the event in my mind's eye.

She (I always think of Monarchs as "she" unless proved otherwise) was flitting about a bed that contained hamelia, buddleia, lantana, butterfly weed, and yellow cestrum. She stopped to sip from each plant in turn. Her wings were worn and faded. I wondered how far they had carried her.

As I watched, she left the first bed and headed over to some esperanza that grows by the fence. She settled down to feed and I wished that she might linger with me for a while.

But a butterfly's life is brief. She had no time to waste. In a few minutes, as if she had heard some distant call, she rose from the shrub on her tattered wings and headed south once again. I last saw her as she crossed the yard of my next door neighbor and headed across the next yard, her wings beating strongly and with purpose.

When I thought about it later, I thought how appropriate it was that the last plant from which she fed in my yard was esperanza. Hope.

A wonderful surprise!

I went out with the camera this morning to document some rose blooms for a post I was thinking about doing and I found more than I had bargained for. As I was examining the blooms on my Satsuma orange tree, I noticed that a nearby butterfly weed looked like it had been munched. I examined the plant but couldn't find any caterpillars or aphids or anything that typically munches butterfly weed. Then I started looking around at my other plants and found that they had all had bites taken out of them, but try as I could I couldn't find the culprit until...



DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?!! There on the top of this one plant I found three teeny, teeny, tiny little Monarch caterpillars!!! I've blown up the picture a bit so you can see them better, but you can tell by their relative size compared to the leaf that they really are small.

Considering all the bad news that we've had about the status of the Monarch butterfly lately, I consider this an absolute triumph! I feel certain there are other caterpillars around in my garden. They are just so small that I overlooked them, but give them a few days of munching and they should be much more visible.

I've only seen two Monarch butterflies in my garden so far this spring. I chased both of them with my camera, but couldn't get a usable picture. It didn't help that it was very windy on both days of their visits. But, obviously, although they were camera shy, they stopped long enough to leave me the precious gift of their eggs. I'm very glad that my camera found their babies today.