M stands for ... more marvelous, mysterious monarchs migrating — northward, this time.

You may remember being buried under an avalanche of monarchs back in October when they were heading south for the winter. Reports from Mexico are that they have now begun their trek back to northern environs and should be coming through here again any day. But don’t necessarily expect the same staggering numbers — the journey south took its toll in terms of predators, disease, collisions with automobiles (I can’t count the numbers that were sacrificed on our windshield as we drove along the Bluewater highway) and simple exhaustion. So there are usually fewer returning in the spring.

If you were to ask 10 people to name the first butterfly that came to their minds, 11 of them would probably say monarch. That’s because the monarch can be found in just about every nook and cranny of the United States.

But although his presence is so obvious, there are still many things about this mysterious little fly that are unknown even to the most knowledgeable entomologist.

For instance, did you know that no individual monarch makes the complete round-trip migration from Mexico northward and then back to Mexico again?

It’s the descendants of those who started the journey that make their way “homeward” to the wintering grounds where they’ve never been before but from whence their predecessors always start out.

How do they know where to go? Science has yet to come up with an explanation for that, but there is some evidence that a sun compass is involved and also that monarchs use the Earth’s magnetic field in their navigation.


Read More