<
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/488-2211/features/10885-mexico-butterfly-migration>
"Overnight temperatures in the fir forests of central Mexico hover just above
freezing in January. It’s the ideal temperature for the enormous colonies of
monarch butterflies that, in late August, begin their 3,000-mile migration
south to this small mountainous region. They overwinter until March, when they
begin the journey back to the north. This sliver of fir forest, first
discovered by biologists in 1975, has a microclimate that draws the monarchs
that spend their summer months in the vast swath of Canada and the United
States east of the Rocky Mountains. Scientists estimate that by October, when
all the butterflies have arrived, each acre occupied by a colony can hold up to
25 million monarchs. It’s thought that, even though monarch butterfly
populations have dropped 84 percent in just the last two decades, more than a
billion of the colorful insects still find their way home to a protected
reserve in the mountains of Michoacan State and Mexico State every year.
For nearly two millennia, butterflies have been vital to the belief systems of
the Indigenous people of central Mexico. The Aztecs, also called the Mexica,
viewed butterflies as the embodiment of the souls of warriors slain in battle.
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of the widespread prevalence of
butterfly symbols at such cities as Teotihuacan, which flourished from 100 B.C.
to A.D. 650, and Tula, the capital of the Toltec people from about A.D. 850 to
1150. University of Copenhagen Mesoamericanist Jesper Nielsen is exploring the
possibility that the tradition of depicting butterflies that began at
Teotihuacan is linked to the symbolic significance ancient people may have
attached to the annual monarch migration."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
