Odum School researchers have been featured in a number of recent news stories about butterflies.
Monarchs in Decline: It’s Complicated
A collection of papers about long-term trends in monarch butterflies, published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America on Aug. 5, has garnered attention from the national media, with stories in the Washington Post and Science.
The monarch butterfly in North America is an iconic insect and a flagship species for insect conservation. Well-known and beloved by anyone and everyone who owns a garden, its notoriety has only increased since reports of its declining overwintering population in central Mexico in the past 20 years. Odum School Assistant Research Scientist Andy Davis organized a number of top monarch scientists to put together a collection of scientific papers devoted to tracking the monarch population in other phases of its life cycle. Davis authored or coauthored three of the eight papers.
Read the story in the Washington Post: Are monarch butterflies really being massacred? A new study says it’s a lot more complicated than it seems
Read the story in Science: Monarch butterfly studies tell a perplexing tale
Crowdfunding Project Monarch Health
The crowdfunding campaign to support Project Monarch Health, the citizen science project run by Associate Dean and UGA Athletic Association Professor Sonia Altizer, was the focus of a story by Lee Shearer in the Athens Banner Herald on Aug. 3. Project Monarch Health tracks the spread of a debilitating disease in wild monarch butterflies with the help of volunteers—including many schoolchildren who participate through their schools—from across North America.
Read the article: Scientist turns to crowdfunding to keep butterfly research going Georgia Funder site: Project Monarch Health: Tracking Disease in Wild Butterflies at a Continent-Wide Scale A “collection of superlatives”
A profile of Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor Jim Porter in the Athens Banner Herald by Denise Horton on Aug. 1 describes his renewed focus on butterflies after a long and distinguished career as a marine ecologist.
Read the story: Flights of fancy: UGA professor and his search for ‘superlative’ butterflies and moths