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It’s Been A Great Year For Butterflies in Maine

Pat Wellenbach
/
Associated Press
A painted lady butterfly rests on a purple coneflower in Arrowsic, Maine, in Aug. 2005.

If you think you are seeing more butterflies than usual, you’re right — it is a big year in Maine for two kinds of butterflies: monarchs and painted ladies.

One of the coordinators of the Maine Butterfly Survey, Dr. Herb Wilson of Colby College, says monarchs are having one of their best seasons in years. The executive director of the coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Bill Cullina, is excited about the butterflies, too.

“We haven’t had a butterfly season like this since 2012. So five years ago we had a crazy season,” he says. “I think the butterflies, they got a head start this year for whatever reason, so we’ve had the monarchs around for about a month longer than normal and it’s just great.”

Over the past few years, there has been a great deal of concern about monarch butterflies — their numbers had been dwindling.

Wilson says monarchs face many dangers: They take several generations to migrate from Mexico to Maine and are threatened by many things along the way, including cold weather and pesticides. He says their strong numbers this year are an encouraging sign.