While the article goes on and on about Climate change being the culprit. Tis doubtful. We have rampant pesticide usage and urban sprawl. The people, who live in rural areas, still want to make their lawns pristine. The rake up the leaves where butterfly eggs are awaiting spring to hatch.

I have two butterfly bushes and a row of Red bee balm. They love it!! I also let the leaves stay on the ground, in the back of my yard.. I have a fairly large yard..

Lynda

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Snip

The new research, published last week in the journal Science, details winnowing butterfly populations across the majority of the 450 species evaluated by the researchers.

By combining decades of butterfly sighting data recorded by scientists and amateurs, the team found that the total number of butterflies observed west of the Rocky Mountains has fallen by 1.6 percent every year since 1977.

In particular, the iconic western monarch butterfly’s population has crashed to the tune of 99.9 percent, reports Liz Langley for National Geographic. But, per National Geographic, the declines have also pushed less famous species such as the Boisduval’s blue and the California dogface butterfly, California’s state insect, to the brink of extinction.

“The declines are extremely concerning ecologically,” Dara Satterfield, a butterfly researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who was not involved in the study, tells the Guardian. “We know butterflies and moths act as pollinators, decomposers, nutrient-transport vessels, and food sources for birds and other wildlife.”

This latest study is the most recent in a series of research papers documenting declining insect populations across the globe. Speaking with Melissa Sevigny of radio station KNAU, Forister says the lesson from this research may be that “if butterflies are suffering out there in protected areas, counterintuitively, that elevates the importance of land closer at hand,” he says “You could think twice about spraying poisons in your background, because our backyards are good butterfly habitat.”