The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project workshop held May 30 at UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s Brunswick station trained 29 citizen scientists to monitor monarch butterfly populations and habitats.
The participants learned monarch biology, including how to identify eggs, the five stages of larvae, pupae, and male and female adults. Monitoring kits were distributed to the first 15 individuals or teams to commit to regularly monitor and report data for two milkweed growing seasons. The kit included an apron, clipboard, rain gauge, hand lens, ruler, thermometer, a set of life cycle cards and a book.
The workshop was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and hosted by UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s Brunswick station.
The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project is a citizen science project involving volunteers from across the United States and Canada in monarch research. It was developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota to collect long-term data on larval monarch populations and milkweed habitat. The over-arching goal of the project is to better understand how and why monarch populations vary in time and space, with a focus on monarch distribution and abundance during the breeding season in North America.