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.”