Are Butterflies Going Bust? Butterflies across the nation face
dangerous threats that include global warming Why Butterflies
Are on the Brink Butterflies are not only among the most
beautiful insects in the world, they are among the most
beautiful of all creatures—living flashes of sunlight and
rainbow. But now, worldwide, many butterfly species have begun
to dwindle and even disappear. In the United States, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service has designated 23 species as
endangered or threatened. Butterflies suffer from the same ills
that plague all wildlife these days: habitat loss, pollution,
global warming and competition from alien species that are
invading butterfly habitat. The common monarch butterfly (photo
at left) has been jeopardized by habitat loss in Mexico,
althought biologists are predicting that a bumper crop of
monarchs, some 200 millon of them, will wing across Texas from
Mexican wintering sites in 2011. Experts say the insects also
face unique hurdles. Their complicated life cycles may take