A team of entomology students is working to understand the best habitat arrangements for these well-known butterflies to keep them from becoming insects of the past.
It’s a sweltering August day in 2019. The sun gilds the flowering prairies of southern Wisconsin. Entomology graduate student Skye Harnsberger and her research team park their pickup truck on the side of a back road, grab their clipboards, and trek into the waist-high grass.
As they tread a predetermined path, the team stays on the lookout for the distinct profile of milkweed plants. When spotted, the milkweed is examined and tallied. They repeat this simple process all summer long. It’s tedious work, but critical, because the data they collect could help save the monarch butterfly.
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