Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife…

It’s estimated that some 350-million monarch butterflies will arrive in Texas as part of an annual fall migration to Mexico.

They hit the Panhandle and the Red River in mid September… they’ll hit Central Texas in the first week of October. The best place is actually along the western portion of the state. They’re not common in East Texas and along the coast.

Mike Quinn, invertebrate biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife, says monarchs make the long trip, surviving on nothing more than flower nectar. And yes, there is a visual difference between the males and the females…

The male monarch has black spots in the middle of the upper side of the side wings and females lack those.

Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Monarch Watch program enlists the services of hundreds of volunteers to collect data on the species during its migration.

We recruit volunteers of all ages and backgrounds all across the state, and we have over 500 people that keep calendars, that’s the one of the most helpful bits of information that people collect for us.

Members receive a booklet and migration calendar, which helps record the presence and abundance of the species in their area.

To volunteer, log on to our website, passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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