Why was this year’s return of monarch butterflies a bust?

A Monarch butterfly sits on a tree trunk at the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary in the mountains of Mexico's Michoacan state. A study published in 2013 of the Monarch butterflies' winter nesting grounds in central Mexico shows that small-scale logging is more extensive than previously thought, and may be contributing to the threats facing the Monarch's singular migration pattern. (Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)

Habitat loss blamed for decline in monarch butterflies, wild bees
The return of the monarch butterflies to central Mexico didn't happen on Nov. 1 this year, but instead just a fraction of the millions of butterflies expected straggled in a week late, and the decline of that species, along with a slate of other insects including wild bees, has been linked to the loss of vegetation the insects need to survive.
--New York Times

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