April 26, 2002 Dear Students, Greetings from your friends at Journey North! In our last update, we told about the butterfly Mr. Edson captured in Arkansas. We asked you to predict how many eggs she would lay and how long she would live. This butterfly represents the millions of butterflies that spent the winter with you in Mexico. How's she doing? Here's news from Jim: "The female went to butterfly heaven the afternoon of April 14th. She had started slowing down on egg production towards the end of the week, and she finished with a grand total of 256 eggs." So although this butterfly has now died, her eggs are now developing into butterflies. Soon her young will continue the cycle of life as fresh butterflies. (This takes about one month.) Are you surprised that a single butterfly can lay so many eggs? The butterflies that spent the winter in Mexico lived for a long, long time! Their lives began last August, at the same time your school year began. They flew all the way to Mexico from the U.S. and Canada. They survived the winter months in Mexico, with hardly any food. And they survived another migration back to the north, to the places shown on the map below. How long did the butterflies that overwintered in Mexico live? Let's count the days: Assume the butterfly in Arkansas emerged as an adult last August 14 in the United States. How many days old was that butterfly when she died on April 14? This Week's Migration News The monarchs have moved into three news states since our last update: Kansas, Missouri, and New Jersey. However, it has been a slow week. This is probably because so few adult butterflies are now alive. The population was very small this spring, because so many butterflies were killed last January by the storm in Mexico. We hope for good breeding conditions in the U.S. and Canada this summer, so the population can rebuild, and many millions of butterflies will return to Mexico next winter! Date City   State Latitude Longitude 23 April Columbia          Missouri 38.91 -92.25 22 April Wichita           Kansas 37.69 -97.33 22 April Osawatomie        Kansas 38.45 -94.99 22 April Beatrice          Nebraska 40.27 -96.77 21 April Eminence          Missouri 37.18 -91.48 21 April Guthrie           Oklahoma 35.84 -97.48 21 April Brentwood         Tennessee 36 -86.79 20 April Tupelo            Mississippi 34.27 -88.71 19 April Barnsdall         Oklahoma 36.52 -96.14 18 April Toccoa            Georgia 34.56 -83.32 18 April Alexander         Arkansas 34.68 -92.54 18 April Perry             Oklahoma 36.29 -97.29 18 April Emporia           Kansas 38.55 -96.17 18 April Damascus          Maryland 39.29 -77.22 18 April Lancaster         Pennsylvania 40.08 -76.31 17 April Louisville        Kentucky 38.25 -85.77 17 April Knoxville         Tennessee 35.95 -84.02 17 April Cedar Hill     Missouri 38.38 -90.67 16 April Brentwood         Tennessee 36 -86.79 16 April Norman            Oklahoma 35.25 -97.46 15 April Guthrie           Oklahoma 35.84 -97.48 15 April Tulsa             Oklahoma 36.15 -95.98 14 April Charlotte         North Carolina 35.19 -80.83 11 April Dodge City   Kansas 37.69 -100.11 The next monarch butterfly migration update will be sent on May 10.