Ominous Monarch Report from Mexico

Donald A. Davis donald.davis at utoronto.ca
Wed Sep 9 01:38:58 EDT 1998


Do any of you have contacts in Mexico who could confirm this report,
just received?

Don Davis
Toronto, ON
-------------------
Caterpillars threaten Mexico butterfly reserve


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Poisonous caterpillars have invaded
a Mexican reserve of the migrating monarch butterfly,
threatening to destroy much of the winter habitat of the
distinctive butterflies, officials said Monday.
``It is a threat. They (the caterpillars) are attacking the
reserve,'' said a spokesman for Mexico's Environment Ministry.
Officials said the plague of caterpillars, which began more
than a month ago, had hit about 1,500 trees on the border of the
states of Mexico and Michoacan, where the distinctive yellow and
black butterflies are due to arrive next month.
The caterpillars have killed about 20 percent of those
trees, which provide food for the butterflies.
Millions of monarchs fly 2,400 miles each year between their
breeding grounds in the eastern United States and Canada, and
heavily wooded areas in central Mexico.
The Environment Ministry said it had launched a program to
fumigate and replant affected trees.
Reforma newspaper, citing unidentified experts, said a
drought in Mexico this year was partly to blame for the
caterpillar plague.
Environmentalists have also denounced damage to the reserve from illegal
logging.
Mexico signed an agreement with Canada in January on
financing a new protected forest for the monarchs.

REUTERS


More information about the Leps-l mailing list