Monarchy

A fascinating piece in the Science Times (the Gray Lady's science section) examines the central mystery of the famed Monarch butterfly migration -- namely:

The butterfly that goes from Canada to Mexico and partway back lives six to nine months, but when it mates and lays eggs, it may have gotten only as far as Texas, and breeding butterflies live only about six weeks. So a daughter born on a Texas prairie goes on to lay an egg on a South Dakota highway divider that becomes a granddaughter. That leads to a great-granddaughter born in a Winnipeg backyard. Come autumn, how does she find her way back to the same grove in Mexico that sheltered her great-grandmother?

"A throng of leaderless orphans" is how the Times' Donald MacNeil characterizes the Monarch migration. The sad thing is that southern terminus of this strange, trans-generation haj -- the forests of Michoacan, Mexico -- is in peril. Although the Mexican government has declared 360,000 acres of the forest butterfly sanctuary, it's estimated that nearly half the area has been logged off.