Monarch News

RANDOLPH TWP. The day of freedom had finally arrived for the Monarch butterflies raised by the Ironia School fifth-graders in Robert Szuszkowski’s fifth-graders science class.

The beautiful, orange-winged insects were to be released so they, like countless generations before them, could endure the long, fall migration flight to central Mexico for their winter sojourn. But the butterflies, already wearing their titanium research tags, were too cold to move upon their release on Friday, Oct. 3.

Instead, they affixed themselves to the faces and clothes of several students, where they could find some warmth.

Their refusal to leave troubled Szuszkowski, a Monarch expert who has achieved national and international recognition over the years. As he knew, if any failed to migrate, they would die.

“You have to put them in the tropical milkweed or the bee balm,” said Szuszkowski – or “Mr. S,” as his students call him.

Their demise would be in addition to the thousands that, this year alone, perished from one natural calamity or another, he explained.

In winter, frost in Mexico wiped out the milkweed crop. “Thousands of Monarchs were lost,” he said.

This summer, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike wreaked havoc on the Monarchs that already departed for Mexico in late summer.

Closer to home, afflictions drastically pared down the number of Monarchs Szuszkowski’s students raised in the classroom.

Flies laid eggs in Monarch chrysalis, then the butterflies became afflicted with the parasite “ophryocystis elektroscirrha,” or OE.

“Last year we had about 500. This year, we have maybe 75,” he said.

Now the weather would probably impact the little Monarch squadron left to migrate.

Still, the mood was upbeat as Szuszkowski’s students, using the lightest titanium and touch, tagged the Monarchs’ wings prior to their release.

When that task was completed, they took the butterflies into the school garden, where they read poems and essays wishing the insects well on their journey.

Finally, the butterflies were freed from their cage to take flight in the new, cold world. Or, at least try.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Chilly goodbye just one of many challenges Monarch butterflies faced this year

By

P.C.ROBINSON, Editor