Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are some of the most iconic insects around. But they are uniquely threatened and earlier this month, Mexico’s Commission for National Protected Areas announced that the number of monarch butterflies has dropped to frighteningly low levels. The monarch butterfly population returning to their winter habitats fell by 59% this year, making it the second lowest level since scientists started keeping records.
The Mexican government is not alone in noticing the precipitous decline in monarch butterflies. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation — a group that specializes in protecting insects, arachnids, crustaceans and other arthropods — warned in its annual Western Monarch Count that they only counted 233,394 butterflies at 256 overwintering sites compared to last year’s total of over 330,000 butterflies. To put this in perspective, the researchers explained in a press statement that this is "just 5% of their population numbers in the 1980s, when low millions were common."
