Analysis: US Butterflies Disappearing at 'Catastrophic' Rate
First National Analysis Finds America's Butterflies Are Disappearing at 'catastrophic' Rate
America's butterflies are disappearing because of insecticides, climate change and habitat loss, with the number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000, a new study finds.
The first countrywide systematic analysis of butterfly abundance found that the number of butterflies in the Lower 48 states has been falling on average 1.3% a year since the turn of the century, with 114 species showing significant declines and only nine increasing, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science.
"Butterflies have been declining the last 20 years," said study co-author Nick Haddad, an entomologist at Michigan State University. "And we don't see any sign that that's going to end."