Project looks to pay for monarchs for breeding

The Monarch Research Project is offering a $10 reward for each live monarch butterfly delivered to the organization's research center within the next week.

The group intends to use the butterflies as breeding stock to supply healthy caterpillars to the more than 60 Monarch Zone butterfly rearing stations supported by the group in Linn County.

'The monarchs are a little late this year on their northern migration, and we want to get started raising caterpillars as soon as possible,” said Clark McLeod, director of the Monarch Research Project.

McLeod said all monarchs used to produce caterpillars will first be tested for ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite that infects the monarch worldwide and is easily transmitted from the butterfly to its larva.

McLeod said about 8 percent of the monarchs that enter Iowa from the south are infected with the parasite.

'We want to take every precaution to ensure we are using only healthy monarchs and producing only healthy caterpillars,” he said.

The butterflies should be delivered in good condition, as soon as possible after capture, to the group's research center, 4970 Lakeside Rd., Marion. Delivery can be coordinated by emailing Monarch Research Project co-founder Cam Watts at cwatts1946@aol.com