Delicate F E AT U R E S TO RY
Balance
UCM Biology Professor Takes Rare Butterflies Under His Wing By Kathy Strickland
When Dan Marschalek was
6 years old, he embarked on the “treasure hunt” of collecting butterflies around his home in Madison, Wisconsin. He remembers visiting his grandparents’ farmland near St. Louis in the summers and being drawn more to the insects in the pastures than the cattle. “I would often go on walks with my grandpa to look at the cows,” says Marschalek, who is now an assistant professor of biology at the University of Central Missouri. “He’s checking out the cows while I’m looking at more of the natural world.” It didn’t take Marschalek long to realize that the butterflies in mideastern Missouri were different from the ones he’d collected in southern Wisconsin. That’s because many species have extremely restricted habitats. Some live in only one location on the entire planet. Motivated to help protect endangered species, Marschalek decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He considered forestry as a double major, but when his introductory-level class started discussing the effects of insect “pests” on forests, he realized it was actually those “pests” he wanted to study. He switched to a double major in entomology and went on to earn his Ph.D. in the field.
Endangered Species
People throughout North America are familiar with the plight of the monarch. This orange-and-blackwinged beauty really gets around, migrating 3,000 miles to Mexico each fall and back to Canada each spring. The species’ population has declined more than 90 percent in recent decades, according to the National Wildlife Federation, and there are now tri-national efforts to restore its native habitat. In cities across its
16
Spring 2022 | www.ucmfoundation.org/magazine
Hermes copper butterfly
