by Kate Redmond
Monarch Butterflies Spring 2026
Howdy, BugFans,
THEY’RE COMING!!!
It’s barely spring, officially – way too early to be thinking about butterflies, right? Nope. The first butterflies of the year have already been reported on the Wisconsin Butterflies website (https://wisconsinbutterflies.org/butterfly) (which also serves your Tiger beetle and Robber fly needs).
Our first butterflies are usually the anglewings (commas and Question Marks https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/anglewings/) and the Mourning Cloaks https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/mourning-cloak-revisited/. Why? Because they go through the winter as adults, tucked up into a sheltered spot (called a hibernaculum). These are the species that are seen by people tapping maple trees in the Sugarbush during the warm days of late winter. When the cold returns – and it always does, except in the bizarre spring of 2012 – they seek shelter again. They are able to be abroad in early spring, before the wildflowers bloom, because they feed on sap from sap drips, juice from rotting fruits, and minerals from animal droppings.
The other early butterflies are species that overwintered as a chrysalis and emerged in spring – Cabbage Butterflies https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/cabbage-whites-and-sulphurs-redux/ and a couple of “blue” butterflies, the Eastern Tailed-Blue and the “Spring” Spring Azure https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/small-blue-butterflies-2/. In very warm years, early individuals of these species have been recorded in late March. Our first Monarch sightings usually come in May.
Back to the Monarchs. A year ago, winter censuses of the eastern and western populations, Monarch Butterfly showed that numbers were down https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/the-monarch-butterfly-problem/. This year’s census found eastern Monarchs occupying 64% more territory in Mexico’s oyamel fir forests than last year. Not a home run, but reason for optimism https://wimonarchs.org/late-mar-2026-update-what-do-the-numbers-in-mexico-mean/.
Monarchs are on the way! Check the Journey North interactive map – https://maps.journeynorth.org/map/?map=monarch-adult-first&year=2026&season=spring. For more information, see https://wimonarchs.org/.
Mike Reese has built a wonderful community of butterfly-lovers who make reports to the Wisconsin Butterflies website; and while it is more anonymous, the Wisconsin Odonata Survey website (https://wiatri.net/inventory/odonata/) contains a treasure trove of information. Where do all those reports come from? Us – they are two examples of Citizen/Community Science projects here in Wisconsin! Register with the site, keep track of the butterflies and/or dragonflies/damselflies you see on your walks or in your back yard (you need to take a nose count of the butterflies but not of the dragonflies), and then log on to record what you’ve seen. Both sites accept pictures.
The Journey North organization offers another Community Science project called the monarch larva monitoring project https://mlmp.org/.
Go outside – look for butterflies!
Kate Redmond, The BugLady
Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/