May 10, 2002 Dear Students, Once again this week, the most significant migration news is that we have very little news! For the 3rd week in a row, very few migration sightings have been reported. We hit an all time low during the past week, with only 2 new sightings reported. Fecha Ciudad Estado Latitud Longitud 29 abril Ames Iowa 42.06 -93.57 2 mayo Bakersville North Carolina 36.05 -82.19 The migration has not advanced noticeably beyond its location on the map we sent to you two weeks ago. Last year at this time, the first monarch had already been seen in Ontario, Canada. The date of that first sighting was May 2nd. * When do you predict the first monarch will cross the border and be seen in Canada this year? The population continues to be very small this spring, because so many butterflies were killed last January by the storm in Mexico. The new butterflies of the next generation should appear any day, so we hope to have many more butterflies to report in our next update! Meanwhile, a few people are still seeing VERY OLD butterflies, of the generation that overwintered in Mexico. The butterflies are so old they look like ghosts! This is because the colorful orange and black "scales" on their wings have worn away. The wings underneath are as transparent as waxed paper. People sometimes call them "ghosts" because you can see right through them. Last week we asked you to calculate how old the butterfly in Arkansas was. If it lived from August 14 to April 14, as we suggested, it would have been 8 months old! Only those monarch butterflies that migrate to Mexico live so long. The butterflies that breed in the U.S. and Canada during the summer live for only about two weeks. In August, however, a final generation will be born. Those butterflies will migrate to Mexico and live for many months. This is one more way the butterflies that come to Mexico are unique.