Perhaps the best part of our Center’s experience on campus is when we shepherd student enthusiasm in a project – and make it happen! That accomplishment has come full circle with the recent explosion of Monarch Butterfly activity in the two Pollinator Garden sites we helped establish. The first started over 2 years ago by the Twin Oaks courtyard area by the Del rey Theatre, located on the East side of Campus, and the second just last semester (see CURes blogs in May 2024, September 2024, and March 2025): CURes Participates in Multiple Earth Day Events during the Month of April, Twin Oaks Pollinator Garden Attracts Monarch Butterflies!, 2024 CURes Year-In-Review.
Students from various groups on campus were motivated to make a difference by assisting wildlife as part of their experience at LMU, especially graduates Josh Petteruti and Andrea Payre Madrigal, formerly with ASLMU (Associated Students of LMU, Sustainability and Operations). It didn’t take long for the West Coast Monarch Butterflies to find their host plants, Narrow-leaf Milkweed, this summer. Monarch butterflies can “smell” their host plant up to 2 miles away! That’s right, they hone in and the females lay eggs, and thus starts one of the most magical processes in nature, the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.
This year, the Monarchs started showing up on schedule in June, and during the month of July, Lucy Renfrow, with Green LMU, and CURes Drollinger Environmental Fellow Lisa Fimiani, have babysat over 50 Monarch caterpillars, bringing in new plant “milk bottles” as the babies devour the leaves of the established Milkweed, striping the plants down to stalks. That’s OK, that’s what the plant is meant to do, provide the food necessary for these tiny “mini-me” caterpillars, who, after they hatch from a tiny egg, (Monarch butterfly eggs are about the size of a pinhead or pencil tip), are fully formed in miniature size (about 2 millimeters long) to grow into mature caterpillars over 2 inches long!
Summer months are the time when staff at LMU make sure these student-inspired projects continue and succeed, which requires weekly – sometimes daily – visits to the sites to make sure everything is going well for these inspirations of nature to perform their transformation. Once they reach the right size in 11-18 days (what’s called their final instar), they will crawl away from their food source, often causing consternation to human observers, who worry they will get stepped on by humans and other animals or picked off by birds.
They are headed to a spot where they can hang in their chrysalis safe from predators, and when the time comes, hatch and drop their wet wings to dry (8-14 days). This is a critical time; if there are sticks or branches in the way, the wings can dry crooked, and the butterfly will not be able to fly long distances. Thus, Lucy and Lisa are on vigil to look for chrysalises and make sure they have room below for the butterflies to emerge fully and successfully.
Later this week, we will be participating in an International Monarch Monitoring Blitz (Save the Date!) that goes from July 25 to August 3. Folks from all over the world will be participating, and we are very excited to be joined by staff from Service and Action next week as we explore ways for students on Campus during the Summer can learn about and participate in community science by observing the flora and fauna on our beautiful Campus.
Here are some fun facts about Monarchs, taken from the US Forest Service website (Monarch Butterfly Biology): “Monarchs have up to four generations each summer, each one traveling a little further north than the last. The last generation of the year migrates south. During the summer breeding season, monarchs live from 2-5 weeks, during which they mate and lay the eggs that become the next generation. The last generation of the year does not become reproductive and is said to be in “reproductive diapause”. The butterflies are the ones that migrate to Mexico, where they overwinter.”
These butterflies become reproductive in February and March as they move north, laying eggs on milkweeds as they progress northward into the United States. Some of these butterflies can live as long as 9 months! The migratory generation has an enormous task ahead of them. Weighing less than a gram, some of these unique butterflies will fly between 2,000 to 3,000 miles to an overwintering location in Mexico from East Coast locations, in California they overwinter along the Coast.
Raising these miracles of nature takes a village, and at LMU, we partner with our fantastic Facilities Management team, many departments, and student groups, to assure their care and ability to thrive.
Go Lions!