Tagging the king of butterflies

Biologist helps map monarch's mysterious migration

FOLLY BEACH — Tagging a monarch butterfly takes more than a delicate touch. It takes a rubber band, a refrigerator — and a sticky note.

Those swarms fluttering through the beach asters and groundsel trees on this barrier island right now are waves of the annual East Coast migration of maybe millions of monarchs, the spectacular orange "king" of the beautiful insects. That man in camouflage with the big net is Billy McCord, a South Carolina Natural Resources wildlife biologist.

He's trying to help figure out how many of them will go where. And that means tagging the gossamer critters, somehow.

The migration of monarchs is one of those awe-inspiring natural mysteries. Along the West Coast they fly from as far north as Washington state to as far south as Mexico. In the Midwest, they cover the same distances through the Great Plains. In the East they go from as far as Canada to ... nobody is really sure.

Most are thought to go to Caribbean islands such as Cuba. But some of them go as far as Mexico; three butterflies McCord tagged at Folly Beach have been found there.

If that weren't amazing enough for an insect as light as a hair, the monarchs McCord will net over the next few weeks aren't the same ones who passed through last year. They are their grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

The butterflies don't live more than a few months. But the next generations will return to the same roosts.

"Most people would never dream they can do that," McCord said. "It's a marvel how they fly and maneuver. Just the most efficient design for an insect there, I would guess."

McCord himself might be just about as singular. McCord will hold a netted monarch in his lips to free his hands to grab an envelope for it. He does it to be sure he's as delicate with the creature as possible — monarchs are poisonous. Crunching one means ingesting a heart toxin.

He's netted butterflies most of his life.

"I'm still kind of a kid. I've never lost that fascination with the natural world that most people lose," he said. McCord is the lone tagger on the South Carolina coast, one of the Eastern monarch flyways, for the Monarch Watch, the leading survey run by University of Kansas entomologists.

"He tags a remarkable number of butterflies and he's tagging a very enigmatic part of the migration," said Chip Taylor, Monarch Watch director. Monarchs tagged in the Lowcountry are the last waves of the migration. And fewer of the tags along the East Coast are reported again than others; the watch hopes McCord's work can help say why.

McCord will net as many as 100 monarchs in a day, noting the locations and feeding. At home, he pins the wings under rubber bands and plants an adhesive tag the size of small nailhead — literally a sticky note — on the underside of the wing. The tag has an identification number and an 800 number.

Then he puts them in the refrigerator overnight, where the low temperature puts them to sleep. He releases them the next day. Last year he tagged more than 1,500 butterflies.

Knowing where monarchs go and why, as well as how they feed along the way, could become a crucial indicator of the health of the barrier islands, where a staggeringly diverse collection of native plants and animals live.

"Some people never think about how development might be affecting the insect population," McCord said. "Insects are very resilient and adaptable. When you see problems with insects you know you have serious issues with the ecology of these islands."

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.