Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Numbers Flutter Upwards AAP
go to original February 19, 2016

Favorable weather conditions at breeding grounds for monarch butterflies in Mexico are expected to help raise their numbers to possibly more than 100 million this year, about triple the amount of a few years ago, a study says.

But the overall number of the majestic orange and black butterflies that travel thousands of miles on a migration into the US and Canada is still well below the 1 billion range of two decades ago, the study from a Texas A&M University researcher said.

"It seems conditions have been successful for monarchs overwintering - not too wet or cold, which can be a lethal combination for them," said Craig Wilson, a senior research associate at the university in the Center for Mathematics and Education.

The butterflies have suffered from the expansion of farmland, sprawling housing developments and the clear-cutting of natural landscapes along their migration path.

Monarchs lay eggs only on milkweed plants, which grow wild throughout the US. But the milkweed, on which their larvae feed, can cause stomach problems for cattle that eat it, so ranchers and farmers destroy it.

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