SUDOKU

tural Experiment Station entomologist Dr. Kelsey Fischer, it’s interesting to note that the question of “where are the monarchs?” comes up every year. Fischer has worked with the Eastern subpopulation of monarchs, those east of the Rocky Mountains, since 2016. Their lowest population point was in 2013, she said.

When working in Iowa, and when she was getting her master’s degree in Delaware, Fischer was asked by friends, family and colleagues about monarchs every year. “Now, in Connecticut, the story is no different,” she said. “Every year, without a doubt, I get the question 'where are all the monarchs?'”

Fischer said she never judges how the monarch butterfly population size is doing based on summer observations. “Because the monarch migrates, the monarchs we see in CT are a direct result of earlier generations of monarchs in different parts of the country," she said. “Monarchs could be anywhere. Check out the Journey North website. It looks like they’re distributing well.”

According to Fischer, if you study the migration patterns and the time needed to go from egg to adult, “the monarchs arrived in CT right when I expected to see them – in the middle of July – and I’ve been seeing adults, eggs, and larvae ever since.” In her opinion, “everything appears to be on track.” And the focus, according to Fischer, should be how well the monarchs are doing overwintering in Mexico. The population is all together there, she said, and is measured consistently each year.

“At this time, they are all in the same place huddled together and we can get a real, strong estimate of population size,” Fischer pointed out.

Overall, she said it’s hard to answer the question, “where are all the monarchs?”

See Monarchs, A9