Friends of Rogers begins tagging butterflies
A tagged monarch butterfly. These tags help scientists across North America track their migration patterns. Participants will be able to place them this Saturday at the Rogers Center in Sherburne. (Photo by Eric Diefenbacher)
by Evening Sun Staff Writer Alan Stevens
SHERBURNE – The Friends of Rogers organization is hosting a free monarch butterfly rearing and tagging event on Saturday. The event will be hosted by Eric H. Diefenbacher, an assistant professor at SUNY Morrisville.
The event will host up to 15 participants. People who are interested can email info@friendsofrogers.org or call 607-674-4733 to sign up.
The program is funded by the Otis Thompson Foundation.
The event will teach people of all ages about the life cycle of monarch butterflies, as well as let participants tag butterflies to help scientists keep track of their migration patterns.
Stickers from scientific organizations around the country are placed on monarch butterflies to document where they migrate. Once found by a citizen scientist, their location is marked online.
Monarch butterflies are the only species that experiences multi-generational migration patterns. “It actually goes through four butterfly life cycles, that start approximately in February,” Diefenbacher explained. “There’s only one location in Mexico that all of the monarch butterflies in North America hibernate in. They all go down to a pine forest in Mexico.”
Multiple generations of butterflies travel northward towards Texas until they reach Canada. The fourth generation usually reaches the northeast during late August. “That last generation will fly all the way back down to Mexico and hibernate until next February and then they’ll start the process all over again.”
Global climate change, as well as deforestation in Mexico, is threatening monarch butterfly populations.
“There’s less and less habitat every year, plus with climate change, Mexico has been seeing freezing events, which is bad for the butterflies because that freezing can kill them,” he said.
During their migration, monarch butterflies are tagged by citizen scientists to monitor how they fly back to Mexico.
“There’s a little sticker that you can get from these laboratories in the U.S. and you can tag butterflies yourself. When you release them, they take this tag down to Mexico and then there are scientists down in Mexico ready to receive these butterflies. If they catch them, they can see the tag and the tag number will correspond to the data that you put in online for them to check, so you can see where the butterfly comes from,” he said.
Diefenbacher has studied monarch butterflies since he was a kid growing up in Norwich.
“My family had a large field that had milkweed growing in it. We used to collect the caterpillars we saw, feed them milkweed, and we kept them on the back porch in a screened cage so air flow could go through. Once they turned into butterflies, we opened the door and let them out,” he recalled.
Once Diefenbacher completed his academic career, he came back to Norwich and continued to rear butterflies with his family.
Diefenbacher began collaborating with the Rogers Center almost a decade ago. He currently works within the School of Agriculture, Business and Technology at SUNY Morrisville, specializing in biology.
SHERBURNE – The Friends of Rogers organization is hosting a free monarch butterfly rearing and tagging event on Saturday. The event will be hosted by Eric H. Diefenbacher, an assistant professor at SUNY Morrisville.
The event will host up to 15 participants. People who are interested can email info@friendsofrogers.org or call 607-674-4733 to sign up.
The program is funded by the Otis Thompson Foundation.
The event will teach people of all ages about the life cycle of monarch butterflies, as well as let participants tag butterflies to help scientists keep track of their migration patterns.
Stickers from scientific organizations around the country are placed on monarch butterflies to document where they migrate. Once found by a citizen scientist, their location is marked online.
Monarch butterflies are the only species that experiences multi-generational migration patterns. “It actually goes through four butterfly life cycles, that start approximately in February,” Diefenbacher explained. “There’s only one location in Mexico that all of the monarch butterflies in North America hibernate in. They all go down to a pine forest in Mexico.”
Multiple generations of butterflies travel northward towards Texas until they reach Canada. The fourth generation usually reaches the northeast during late August. “That last generation will fly all the way back down to Mexico and hibernate until next February and then they’ll start the process all over again.”
Global climate change, as well as deforestation in Mexico, is threatening monarch butterfly populations.
“There’s less and less habitat every year, plus with climate change, Mexico has been seeing freezing events, which is bad for the butterflies because that freezing can kill them,” he said.
During their migration, monarch butterflies are tagged by citizen scientists to monitor how they fly back to Mexico.
“There’s a little sticker that you can get from these laboratories in the U.S. and you can tag butterflies yourself. When you release them, they take this tag down to Mexico and then there are scientists down in Mexico ready to receive these butterflies. If they catch them, they can see the tag and the tag number will correspond to the data that you put in online for them to check, so you can see where the butterfly comes from,” he said.
Diefenbacher has studied monarch butterflies since he was a kid growing up in Norwich.
“My family had a large field that had milkweed growing in it. We used to collect the caterpillars we saw, feed them milkweed, and we kept them on the back porch in a screened cage so air flow could go through. Once they turned into butterflies, we opened the door and let them out,” he recalled.
Once Diefenbacher completed his academic career, he came back to Norwich and continued to rear butterflies with his family.
Diefenbacher began collaborating with the Rogers Center almost a decade ago. He currently works within the School of Agriculture, Business and Technology at SUNY Morrisville, specializing in biology.
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