Oct 3, 2024
The Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium provides a monarch rearing opportunity for Iowa elementary students with the help of a REAP Grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Lynne Campbell (pictured above), also known across Iowa as “The Butterfly Lady”, leads a program that delivers monarch eggs to classrooms, along with the supplies needed to raise them from egg and through all life cycle stages, ending with a butterfly release.
Campbell delivered the eggs to the Central Decatur fifth graders September 6, just as the eggs were hatching. She then taught students to safely move their tiny caterpillar to their new home on a milkweed leaf in a small Petri dish. When the caterpillars were about an inch long, they were moved into their new larger homes (pictured above) in plastic cups just big enough for one caterpillar each to eat and grow until they are ready to form a chrysalis and begin metamorphosis. After emerging as butterflies, the monarchs will be tagged and released. The release will happen about one month from their hatch date, just in time for the monarchs to join the southern migration towards Mexico. Hopes will be high to hear back from watchers along the way that a CD monarch has been spotted on its journey!
