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The presence of monarch butterflies in Mexico’s forests this past winter was 35% greater than the previous year, according to the most recent survey led by WWF Mexico. This increase marks a sign of recovery—albeit a fragile one—and gives some reason for hope against a backdrop of several decades of decline for the iconic species. According to the survey, Forest Area Occupied by the Colonies of Monarch Butterflies in Mexico During the 2021-2022 Overwintering Season, the species’ presence in and around Mexico’s famed Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve grew from 5.19 acres in December 2020 to 7.02 acres in December 2021.

It was a cloudless midsummer day in 2019 when Siaja Parceaud-May noticed a Booth’s sulphur butterfly that had some “noticeable differences.” She was about an hour north of her home community of Kuujjuaq in Quebec’s Nunavik region with a team of entomologists and researchers from the Montreal Insectarium, learning how to identify and collect butterflies. Along a sandy, cleared ridge toward Ungava Bay, she spotted the peculiar critter that would be sent to Montreal for further analysis. Her hunch turned out to be right. More than a year later, insectarium director Maxim Larrivée wrote to her — confirming that she had discovered a new subspecies of Colias tyche. To her surprise, it would be named in her honour: Colias tyche siaja.

We are pleased to share a new iBook, “Wings that Make Waves”. Biological illustrator Kim Moss teamed up with Ecologist Dr. Diane Debinski and Ph.D. student Simone Durney to create this interactive book, which is focused on using butterflies as bioindicators. The authors wanted to make the story of their research more accessible to the general public, park visitors, and K-12 teachers. Read more about this project and where to download a free copy of this amazing book.

With checklists from the tropics of Panama to the islands of Hawaii and as far north as Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada, 2021 was an amazing year for eButterfly. There’s no doubt that 2021 was once again a challenging year, leading more people to nature to find comfort, hope, and a sense of connection with others. Thank you for joining us!

Butterfly walks are not only a relaxing activity, but also an invaluable source of data for science. Join Dr. Federico Riva as he discusses the importance of the checklists recorded in eButterfly for his work: (i) the use of butterfly checklists to understand population changes and inform conservation practices; (ii) the importance of “imperfect detection” – our inability to see all butterflies when we are looking for them – and how we can maximize the number of butterflies that we see at a site; (iii) his current work with eButterfly, that leverages thousands of observations from community scientists to help understand regions of conservation priority across North America.

The 4th of July Butterfly Count season is here! Each year, hundreds of butterfly enthusiasts participate in a cooperative effort to count butterflies within established 15-mile diameter survey circles. Most counts depend on the efforts of multiple parties, with each individual or team checking different parts of the survey circle, then combining their counts into a final count total. These tallies are then used to compare between years. The counts are an important and long-running survey that help understand changes in butterfly populations at large scales. Your checklists can also be important for eButterfly too!