MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Here is an environmental mystery that scientists are trying to solve - why are monarch butterflies hanging out in the Southern U.S.? Scientists hope the public can help Molly Samuel from Member station WABE in Atlanta reports.
MOLLY SAMUEL, BYLINE: Just so we're starting on the same page...
ANNA YELLIN: Monarchs are confusing.
SAMUEL: Anna Yellin is a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Generally, in North America, west of the Rockies, monarchs migrate to Coastal California in winter. East of the Rockies, they fly south to Mexico.
YELLIN: Some of these butterflies will be coming from Canada. They may fly as far as, like, 3,000 miles.
SAMUEL: Many pass through the Southeast on their way, but you could be forgiven for thinking about much of the South as sort of monarch flyover country. But then there's this.
MICHAEL KENDRICK: We have evidence that monarchs are and have been overwintering in South Carolina for some time.
SAMUEL: Not going to Mexico at all. Instead, spending the winter in Coastal South Carolina. Michael Kendrick is a scientist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. He says these overwintering monarchs were first noticed in a couple of places in the '90s.
KENDRICK: I think we're looking at something that has been sort of under our noses for a while.
SAMUEL: Now researchers are trying to figure out if there are other hidden pockets of overwintering monarchs in the South. Susan Meyers is a volunteer with the group Monarchs Across Georgia.
SUSAN MEYERS: Just how much of the population is staying here, and what are they doing?
SAMUEL: Meyers and others are asking for help from the public in South Carolina, Georgia and states on the Gulf Coast to document wintertime monarch sightings and report them on the website journeynorth.org or on the app iNaturalist. Meyers says once they figure out where else monarchs are spending the winter, they can start asking other questions like...
MEYERS: Why aren't they in Mexico?
SAMUEL: A changing climate with milder winters could be a contributor, so could a parasite that infects monarchs. Nonnative tropical milkweed people plant in their gardens might entice monarchs to stick around instead of continuing south. Or maybe some have quietly been wintering in the South for a long time. Sonia Altizer is an ecology professor at the University of Georgia. She says this community science project could help protect monarchs as the world around them changes.
SONIA ALTIZER: I'm really interested in trying to figure out what is the new normal for monarchs going to look like.
SAMUEL: One takeaway, she says, maybe this house shouldn't be thought of merely as monarch flyover country.
ALTIZER: I think the Southern U.S. has been pretty much ignored and dismissed as being unimportant for monarch conservation.
SAMUEL: But she says this house could end up playing a critical role for the future of monarch butterflies.
For NPR News, I'm Molly Samuel in Atlanta.
(SOUNDBITE OF SBGB SONG, "BUTTERFLY")
MARTIN: Steve, we have good news in the realm of insect pests. The so-called murder hornet has been declared eradicated from the United States.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Well, that's probably not good news for the murder hornet. But what is the murder hornet?
MARTIN: OK. It's an insect known for its powerful sting and the way it decapitates honeybees...
INSKEEP: Ah.
MARTIN: ...And other prey. It's originally from Asia, first cited in Washington State five years ago.
INSKEEP: And now has decapitated its last bee.
MARTIN: Federal and Washington State agricultural officials announced the eradication yesterday, three years after its last sighting. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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