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2023-2024 Overwintering population declined another 59% since last year. This year’s eastern monarch population occupied only 0.9 hectares (2.2 acres) at their overwintering site. This is the second lowest number counted since monarch populations began being monitored more than 30 years ago – the lowest was 0.67 ha during the 2013–2014 overwintering season.
View World Wildlife Fund’s official article here.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., Sept. 20, 2022 – Pollinators play a critical role in the production of most fruits and vegetables, and a great way to support them is by planting native plants. Bayer is helping the cause by giving away free native-plant seed packets through a new partnership with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).
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Friday Fact | Part 3 | Butterflies "don't see it that way" ![]()
Insects, including butterflies and bees, have compound eyes, which only allows for lower resolution viewing than humans, nearly 100 times worse, in fact. However, those same compound eyes also allow them to have a much greater wide-angle view than we humans. Depending on the species, a butterfly's compound eye consists of up to 12,000 separate structures (ommatidia), each packed with photoreceptors to catch light. ![]()
Insects' eyesight is essentially comprised of all of the ommatidia images, combined. Ommatidia work similarly to computer screens… each dot on the screen is not able to give a clear picture of an image, but large groups of dots, together, reveal a clear image.![]()
Many re-recreated images of compound eyes make it appear as though insects are seeing 100 hundred instances of the same image, they are not. Insects see only ONE image.
"Ha-Ha" Hump-Day 🦋🤣![]()
What’s worse than finding a caterpillar when eating an apple?
-- Finding half of a caterpillar. --
Think milkweed is just for monarchs? Look at all the Great Spangled Fritillaries feeding on the milkweed blooms at Prairie Garden Trust (www.facebook.com/prairiegardentrust/) in New Bloomfield, MO!Lots of Butterflies!
I’m amazed at the number of Great Spangled Fritillaries that we are seeing right now. There are clouds of them around many flowers such as this milkweed. I’ve never seen so many. ![]()
Speyeria cybele![]()
www.henrydomke.com/index.php?module=media&pId=102&id=3427![]()
#milkweed #butterfly #fritillary #insect #nature #flower #wildflower #native #naturephotography #ArtForHealing #fineartphotography #evidencedbasedart #wallart #healingart #artwork #interiordesign #photography #art #henrydomke #artinhospitals #speyeria #hdfa #pgt
Monday Motivation | Quote of the Week![]()
"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: What good is it?" - Aldo Leopold![]()
Photo Credit | Public Domain - National Park Service
Friday Fact | Part 2 | Butterflies "don't see it that way"![]()
Butterflies and bees (and most insects) see ultraviolet colors, which are invisible to human eyes due to the specialized photoreceptors in their compound eyes. They use this ability to locate nectar-bearing plants, through the ultraviolet-reflecting patterns in the plants' flowers.![]()
Many flowers have ultraviolet patterns on their petals that serve the same purpose that a runway strip serves for a plane. The bright ultraviolet colors make it very easy for insects to find their way to the nectar source.![]()
Check out "Part 3" in next Friday's post for more Friday Facts on Butterfly vision!![]()
Photo Credit 1| Dandelion-SAD-2022.jpg | Wikipedia, By Sdixon27, CC BY-SA 4.0 | File: Dandelion-SAD-2022.jpg![]()
Original Photo Credit 2 | Golden Groundsel | Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas-Austin | www.wildflower.org/magazine/native-plants/a-different-light