My mom forgave me for telling the world what an animal hater she is and sent me an interesting email about butterflies, which she does not hate. While visiting Rainbow’s End Butterfly Farm and Nursery recently, she chatted up the owner about the size of butterflies. I mentioned that it seemed as if butterflies in New York are bigger than butterflies in Florida. The owner of Rainbow’s End said this could be due to a common disease amongst monarchs. Under New York law, she is permitted to export butterflies to Florida but is prohibited from importing them because of a disease commonly found in Florida monarchs.
During my laundry room experiment, I remember reading about a disease called OE – Ophryocystic Elektroscirrha. OE is a protozoan parasite unique to monarchs and milkweed, and it does indeed cause monarchs to be smaller in size, specifically they weigh less and have shorter forewings. While Googling OE, I came across another butterfly farm, Shady Oak. They have a page called Ask Edith; Edith is one of the owners and she addressed a question about OE. Apparently, it’s more common in Florida because butterflies fly year-round and plants don’t freeze to the ground, so the cycle never ends. In colder climates, spores die as the milkweed disintegrates in the winter. In the warmest part of Florida, the southern tip, there is approximately an 85% infection rate compared with 30% or less in the rest of the country.
After reading up on OE and its symptoms, it seems that I prematurely blamed the ants when it was probably OE that took my third and final butterfly baby. Another symptom is that they’re too weak to hold onto the pupal case while their wings unfurl. But to end on a happier note, here’s a photo of a beautiful female monarch warming its wings on the banks of the Hudson River.
