The Village of Wellsville has agreed to join the effort to save the Monarch
Michael T. Baldwin Reports,
The village board learned Monday night that this butterfly only eats milkweed leaves and that the population has been declining 80-90% since 1992. The Wellsville Monarchs is a newly formed group designed to sustain current and new monarch habitats. The Board agreed that, in the near future, milkweed seed packets would be made available at the village office at 23 North Main Street.
In July 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) re-classified the migratory monarch butterfly as endangered on its “red list.” It had previously been classified as declining. According to worldwildlife.org, Monarch butterflies embark on a marvelous migratory phenomenon. They travel between 1,200 and 2,800 miles or more from the northeast United States, and southeast Canada to the mountain forests in central Mexico, where they find the right climate conditions to hibernate from the beginning of November to mid-March. The monarch butterfly is known by scientists as Danaus plexippus, which in Greek literally means “sleepy transformation.” The name evokes the species’ ability to hibernate and metamorphize. Adult monarch butterflies possess two pairs of brilliant orange-red wings, featuring black veins and white spots along the edges. Males, who possess distinguishing black dots along the veins of their wings, are slightly bigger than females. Each adult butterfly lives only about four to five weeks.
Love butterflies ? Connect with the Wellsville Monarchs on Facebook and see how you can help make Wellsville a beautiful place for butterflies!!
