Help Monarch Watch Scientists
U of Kansas Project- How You Can Take Part in Butterfly Research
Nov 3, 2008
Monarch Watch is an educational outreach program through the University of Kansas that works to teach children and adults about how they can be a direct partner with real scientists through the study of monarch butterflies.
Monarch Watch Tags
Order monarch tags directly from Monarch Watch. The tag – a small sticker – stays on the monarch as it travels from as far north as Canada to several reserves in central Mexico. The data from the tags collected along the migration route and in the insects’ overwintering grounds gives the scientists a unique look into the world of this high-flying insect.
With Monarch Watch, you can take your children into your garden and learn about butterflies and their amazing migration monarchs while having fun at the same time.
Things you will need to become part of the Monarch Watch team:
- Net: To catch monarchs you will need a big butterfly net. Monarchs are large butterflies, and you would not want to risk crushing them in a small or flimsy net. Practice catching other insects (i.e. flies or small butterflies) before starting on monarchs. Catch the butterfly using a swift figure-of-eight motion with your net, landing with the net over the butterfly on the ground.
- Monarch Watch butterfly tags: These are easy to get and free on the Monarch Watch website. Order plenty ahead of time, so you have the tags by the time migration starts in late August. The tags are small round stickers with identification numbers on each.
- Data sheet: Make sure you follow the directions given by Monarch Watch when recording your data. It is important to write down the date, where you caught the butterfly, what the id number on the tag was and whether the butterfly was a male or female.
- Diagram showing differences in males and females: Identifying differences between males and females will be easy once you have seen a few butterflies, but make sure to refer to your diagram until you are experienced enough to know for sure. The male will have extra little bumps on its bottom hind wing, which hold its male hormones.
- Camera: This is an experience you do not want to forget! Knowing that the delicate butterfly you briefly held while attaching its tag is strong enough to make it to Mexico is awe-inspiring.
Raising Your Own to Tag
Finding monarch butterfly eggs and baby caterpillars and raising them until they metamorphose into butterflies is another way “catch” butterflies to tag. Make sure you wait for the newly-hatched butterfly to dry completely before attaching the tag and releasing your home-grown monarch. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants; to find the caterpillars, look for the tell-tale signs of poop or rounded sections eaten away from a leaf.
When the river of migrating monarchs fades away in October and November, type up your data to send to Monarch Watch. If a monarch you tagged is recovered anywhere along its migration, you will receive a certificate saying how far your monarch got. From your hand all the way to Mexico!
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