Dear Friends,

Monarchs lingered on Cerro Pelon until April 5, 2017, where they continued to cluster near a spring above the El Aserradero meadow. The last time Ranger Patricio Moreno photographed the remaining colony was on March 31st. It was hard to get close up shots of them, he said, because if you approached them, they startled and flew away. Fellow Ranger Javier Moreno noted that their behavior seemed, “confused,” because they flew about a lot without leaving. But after April 5th, while there may have been a handful of monarchs still present, they were no longer any visible clusters on the trees.

Meanwhile down in the valley in the village of Macheros, home to the closest public entry to the Cerro Pelon sanctuary, there are monarchs flying all over our yards. But we’re not sure who these monarchs are. Did they come down off the mountain to lay eggs on the village’s plenitude of tropical milkweed plants? Or are these offspring of the native monarch population that’s with us year round? Whoever they are, they have left dozens of caterpillars who are assiduously reducing local milkweed plants to naked stalks. Whenever we move a piece of yard furniture or a potted plant, we discover a precariously dangling chrysalis. In one of the photos from our yard you’ll see an image of two we relocated to higher ground.

Three years ago Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve officials issued a press release heralding the “historic discovery” of evidence of monarch reproduction in Mexico, on Good Friday no less. This announcement underscored the deep disconnect between bureaucrats and the residents of the Reserve they are charged with managing. Anyone who lives here could have told you that monarchs reproduce here year round, and have been doing so as long as anyone can remember. Nonetheless, the relationship between the mountain and the valley monarch populations, separated by a mere 600-800 meters of altitude, is something that has never, to my knowledge, been systematically investigated.

Good Friday is upon us again, and small villages all over Mexico, including devoutly Catholic Macheros, are preparing to put on their annual passion plays. The town will be transformed into the Stations of the Cross where volunteers will perform the crucifixion in a show that is surprisingly moving despite its amateur theatrics. Early Christians are said to have compared the life cycle of the butterfly to the life of Christ; his earthly life as a caterpillar, the tomb as a chrysalis, and his resurrection as a butterfly. Here’s to another year, and another season of ongoing renewal and continuous resurrections.

Saludos,
Ellen Sharp, PhD
Co-owner, JM Butterfly B&B
Director, Butterflies and Their People, AC