Monarch Butterfly Migration to Mexico Begins

The monarch butterfly migration started this week, and thousands of the black and orange insects have started the journey to Mexico. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is the only species to migrate, as they find winters in the north too cold to survive. Other butterflies spend the winter as larvae or in hibernation. According to the Lincoln Courier on Monday, numerous monarchs were spotted throughout Illinois as they migrated. The butterflies have been spotted in other states including Kansas, reports say. “There must have been thousands,” Vern LaGesse, who works in Menard County, Illinous, told the Courier on Monday. “They were covering the stiff goldenrod flowers.” Some monarchs travel nearly 3,000 miles to their destination in central Mexico, resting on oyamel fir trees in mountainous forests, about two miles above sea level. The Forest Service says that the insects can migrate between 50 and 100 miles per day...more