Recent news
On Sunday February 3, the National Butterfly Center alerted that earlier that day, construction equipment and eight local law enforcement units materialized at the 100-acre sanctuary in Mission, Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Last year, Congress approved funding to build new border-wall sections atop a levee that runs through the center, which protects habitat for hundreds of butterfly species as well as birds and other wildlife. An officer told center staff that “effective Monday morning, [the center’s land south of the levee] is all government land,” according to the post, suggesting that plans to construct the new wall sections continue. (These wall plans are separate from President Trump's larger proposed wall project that is still being negotiated.)
read more »
An iconic migration is on the verge of collapse—we must all do our part to save western monarchs! Once, millions of monarchs overwintered along the Pacific coast in California and Baja, Mexico—an estimated 4.5 million in the 1980s. But by the mid-2010s, the population had declined by about 97%, and in 2018, the decline was that much more dramatic. The annual Xerces Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count showed that the population hit a record low: Volunteers counted only 28,429 butterflies. This number is an 86% drop from the previous count done at Thanksgiving 2017, when 192,668 monarchs were counted at 263 sites (comparing only the sites monitored in both years)—and a dizzying 99.4% decline from the numbers present in the 1980s.
read more »
The Florida Museum is shocked and saddened by the passing of Thomas Emmel, our colleague and friend, who died over the weekend, apparently from natural causes, while traveling in Brazil.
Many of you have known Dr. Emmel for decades; others know him as a professor, mentor, researcher, travel guide, lepidopterist extraordinaire and as the initiator and founding director of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity.
Dr. Emmel’s death represents a personal loss for many, as well as a loss that will be felt across the scientific and avocational Lepidopterist communities. He will be sorely missed.
Many of Dr. Emmel’s friends have asked about making a gift in his memory, and the Museum suggests gifts be directed to the Thomas C. Emmel Founding Director’s Endowment, which supports collections and research at the Florida Museum’s McGuire Center.
Here is information on how to make a gift in his memory: https://www.uff.ufl.edu/give-now/?fund_id=019211
read more »
Read all news articles »