Natural History Wanderings

SF Gate reported

Last year, the mottled orange, black and white wings of 26,000 western monarch butterflies blanketed the forested grove of Ellwood Mesa in Goleta as the species embarked on its annual migration to Central California to escape the chill of winter. But in recent months, the swarms of easily recognized insects have been markedly absent — an indication of a trend revealing their numbers are “severely down” across the state, according to the Xerces Society, a nonprofit that closely monitors the population as part of its conservation efforts focused on invertebrate species.

Read more at Scientists stunned as endangered California species nears extinction