The western population of Monarchs seems to be in dire straits, but the eastern butterflies may be adapting to changing habitats:
https://www.postandcourier.com...
The endangered monarch butterfly might not vanish after all. The swamp could become its refuge.
James Island naturalist Billy McCord last year came across several broods, literally generations of adult butterflies and caterpillars, in the wetlands of the Francis Marion National Forest and near Rantowles Creek.
They previously weren't thought to breed in the wetlands.
McCord found them on a different sort of milkweed than what they were thought to feed on, a more aquatic native plant common in the area. He plans to return to the sites this year to verify and document the breakthrough finding.
It would be the first good news in a while for the spectacular eye-catcher which is severely declining.
"Certainly the more diverse their habitat the more likely they are to survive," McCord said.
The monarch is the "king" of insects — orange-, black- and white-spotted with a 4- to 5-inch wingspan that makes it one of the largest butterflies. Each fall, migrating flocks from the Midwest embark on a near-mythic odyssey, largely to Mexico.
The awe-provoking part is they aren't the ones who made it last year; they are descendants.
An Eastern population of the monarchs comes through the South Carolina coast each fall in pulses, literally thousands of the gorgeous orange wings at a time thronging onto nectar flowers as they travel from barrier island to island.
The arrival of one of those migrating "pulses" has become a watched-for moment of coastal life.
The Mexico-migrating monarchs are considered to be in severe decline because the nectar-flowering plants they need for the trip are being lost to agricultural pesticides and habitat loss as properties develop.
The Eastern population is suffering the same hits, particularly in developing stretches of the coast where they swarm.
Tagging in recent years by McCord and others indicated those monarchs don't go much farther than Florida and some of the nearby islands. Some of those monarchs winter along the South Carolina coast, from McClellanville to Georgia.
When McCord spoke to The Post and Courier on a recent afternoon, he had just observed the butterflies feeding at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant as well as on Folly Beach.
While McCord waits to verify his finding in the wetlands, a recently released study by the University of Florida suggests that Midwestern monarchs might be migrating to that state, as well. McCord needs to see more, he said.
The Florida researchers identified the butterflies as Midwestern, based on an isotope study of samples from their wings or body tissues. The problem is, the isotopes indicate the sort of milkweed the butterflies have been eating — predominantly found in the Midwest. But the same plants also are found in the East, McCord said.
Tagging studies are underway in the Midwest, and McCord is waiting to see if those tags show up in the Florida migration.
