Another summer visitor headed south

WESTFALL — After Robert Carpenter discovered milkweed plants in his Westfall backyard, his gardener found butterfly pupas attached to some of the lawn furniture. The discovery spurred his interest as he showed the Courier several Monarch pupas getting ready to become butterflies. Monarch butterflies make an over 2,250 mile migration to the mountains of Mexico to avoid the cold weather of Pennsylvania and most areas of North America. The journey will expend three generations of butterflies on each leg. Naturalist, Ed Wesley of Milanville, has been nurturing, hatching and releasing monarch butterflies at his “Butterfly Barn” for the last 15 years. Wesley finds the butterfly pupas on the leaves of the milkweed plants in his backyard. “The milkweed plants are at their peak in our area the first week of July and they attract many species of butterflies.” The milky liquid is very similar to the heart drug, Digitalis, which birds detest. This dislike has prompted some to incorrectly believe that Monarchs are poisonous to all predators. Weseley cultivates the pupas in small screen- covered plastic containers where they transform into beautiful orange striped monarch butterflies. At maturity, they are released to journey to Mexico. Before Wesley releases any of his newly formed butterflies, he tags them. He uses a small, ¼-inch diameter adhesive dot that is serial numbered, placing this “dot” on the underside of the Monarch’s wing. The adhesive tags are provided to him by the State University of Kansas which tracks and keep Monarch records. Periodically, Wesley sends his many pages of tagged butterfly information to them. “All the Monarchs east of the Rockies, and there are millions of them, begin their several month trek in mid-summer and early fall to the Monarch Preserve, a mountainous area about 50 miles northwest of Mexico City,” said Wesley. These days many Monarchs are visible in this region as they begin their long trip south, so be on the lookout for them. For more about this surprisingly durable and beautiful insect, go to www.butterflybarn.org.