What's KILLING Butterflies? 🦋 #shorts #butterfly #monarch

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Monarch butterflies, among the most iconic insects in North America, are increasingly plagued by a debilitating parasite, a new analysis shows. The Journal of Animal Ecology published the findings by scientists at Emory University and other institutions.

The U.S. National Science Foundation-supported analysis drew from 50 years of data on the infection rate of wild monarch butterflies by the protozoan Ophryocystis elektrosirrha, or O.E. The results showed that the O.E. infection rate increased from less than 1% of the eastern monarch population in 1968 to as much as 10% today.

"We're seeing a significant change in a wildlife population with a parasitism rate steadily rising from almost nonexistent to as high as 10%," says Ania Majewska, first author of the paper. "It's a signal that something is not right in the environment and that we need to pay attention."

The rise in parasitism, the researchers warn, may endanger the mass migration of the monarchs, one of the most spectacular displays in the animal kingdom involving hundreds of millions of butterflies.