Pilot Study on the Importance of Patch Size to Urban Monarch Butterfly Larval Survivorship Erika Hasle, The Field Museum and Jessica Ross, University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum Many people are planting milkweed to provide host plants for monarch caterpillars. We conducted a small pilot study to understand the role of patch size in successfully rearing monarch larvae from egg to chrysalis. Our presentation will highlight the results from this summer along with our lessons learned and plans to expand this project in the summer of 2019.
Can Suburbs and Small Towns Save the Monarch Butterfly? Mark Johnston, Field Museum It’s all over the news: monarch butterflies have plummeted over the last 20 years. Last summer “clouds of monarchs” were in suburbs and smaller cities. Are neighborhoods, suburbs, and towns getting effective habitat on the ground? That’s what we think, so we’ve expanded our urban monarch research to focus on these areas. Join us to learn how more places can participate, and the huge implications. Monarch Moms: Cultures of Ecological Care in the Suburbs Alexis Winter, Keller Science Action Center, The Field Museum Suburbs are often maligned as places where consumerism trumps environmentalism, but our work on monarch butterfly conservation has led us to many dedicated people raising monarchs and creating habitat for them in Chicago’s suburbs. Why has raising monarchs become such a popular activity, and how might we build on this enthusiasm? And how might we revise our understanding of suburban ecology?
