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MIAMI (AP) - The volunteers tote a butterfly net, binoculars and field guides around the Miami Metrozoo grounds, scanning the plants and flowers for fluttering wings. But they aren't searching for a rare species or collecting specimens for display — they're counting butterflies for the Florida Butterfly Monitoring Network, then leaving the insects to continue their zigzagging flights through the humid air.
As the summer butterfly watching season warms up, researchers hope similar counts organized by the North American Butterfly Association and a few separate state monitoring networks will contribute new data to help track butterfly populations and develop land management strategies.
The counts turn butterfly enthusiasts into citizen scientists who record butterfly sightings in city and suburban parks, zoo-owned conservation lands and other open spaces across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
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