The Waterbury Public Library’s Word Garden was particularly busy Friday morning as a crowd of about 60 people gathered to watch the release of a rare white monarch butterfly.
The butterfly emerged from its chrysalis on Thursday, August 14, and after 24 hours of drying out and acclimating to its environment, the library caretakers released it into the wild.
Youth services librarian Sandra Schweikert spoke about the white butterfly before letting it go. The crowd included community members of all ages, including school-aged kids, toddlers and babies, their parents, and seniors who took a break from their exercise class inside the library to witness the special event.
UNIQUE SPECIMEN
Schweikert explained that the unique specimen was most likely a male butterfly. Female monarchs have thick black lines on their wings, while the lines on males are thinner; males also have distinct black dots, she said.
The library’s white butterfly was briefly named Nivi – short for “nivosus,” a scientific term recognizing a lack of pigment. Its black wing lines appeared thin, and it sported the necessary wing dots as well, signifying that it was male, Schweikert said.
She picked the butterfly up by its wings and placed it on the outstretched arm of Eva Marotto, an eager young onlooker who said, “It felt just the same as all of the other butterflies.” After a short pause, the butterfly flew upward to cheers and applause.
In addition to the special white monarch, the well-attended release party included about 20 familiar orange-and-black monarch butterflies that had also emerged from their chrysalises on Thursday. They were released one by one with adults and children in the crowd enjoying holding them briefly before they lit onto the breeze.
These releases have become commonplace for library staff, library director Rachel Muse said. “We’ve been releasing [butterflies] every day for the past week or so, and we’re going to release more through September.”
MONARCH ENTHUSIAST
The library’s butterflies are donated by local monarch enthusiast Kirsten Francis-Booth, who has been collecting monarchs for roughly 17 years. Last year, she approached the library about sharing her hobby with the community. “I was sitting upstairs in the library one day,” she said, “when I thought, why don’t I bring butterflies here?”
Francis-Booth collects monarch eggs and caterpillars from abundant milkweed in local meadows. This summer, she’s brought about 100 specimens to the library and she said she has several hundred more at her home. She visits the library to care for them as they go through their life cycle from egg to butterfly over a span of about a month. “I do the work, and the library gets the glory of displaying them,” she said.
In return for the library hosting the butterflies, Francis-Booth teaches staff and patrons who gather to enjoy the insects everything she’s learned about monarchs. This summer, she said she began collecting eggs in early July and butterflies were emerging ready to fly about four weeks later. “I’ll keep collecting and releasing until late September,” she said.
Francis-Booth documents the number of butterflies that she releases, along with their sex. She said she typically releases several hundred each summer. This year, the number of eggs and caterpillars have been plentiful. She estimates that between her home collection and the butterflies the library is raising, they will release around 600.
LUCKY FIND
A very lucky find
Friday’s release at the library was particularly large. The day before, just seven were ready to be set free after a morning children’s story time. Then more emerged from their chrysalises, including the white one.
But the unusual white coloration of one butterfly quickly caught the attention of library staff, who of course did some research.
“Someone thought to Google it and discovered this is actually very rare,” Muse said.
The library staff decided to share their news to make Friday’s release a special occasion. They contacted local news media and posted on their social media platforms, calling the white monarch their “special guest star.”
Ahead of the release party, Waterbury Roundabout contacted Desiree Narango, a conservation biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies in Norwich about the unique butterfly. Narango confirmed that the black-and-white monarch variety is special due to a recessive gene.
“It’s an extremely rare genotype. We see them occasionally in the U.S., but not super-often,” she said. Narango’s first question was to ask where the chrysalis or caterpillar came from. It’s possible to order butterflies through the mail to hatch, she explained, which would make it difficult to determine the origin of a single butterfly. Muse confirmed that the library’s supply of monarch eggs and caterpillars comes from Waterbury. “This is local. Collected from a meadow a few miles away and brought right to our garden,” she said.
Narango was impressed. “That’s great to hear. It’s a very lucky find,” she said.
Unfortunately, though, for the white-variety monarchs, their unusual appearance may make them more vulnerable to predators. “Part of the reason they’re so rare is their high mortality,” Narango explained. “They’re more likely to be eaten.”
As it turns out, the typical orange-and-black coloring of the monarch serves as a warning to potential predators. “Orange-and-black indicates to birds that if you eat that butterfly, you might throw up,” she said.
As a result, birds may be less hesitant to snap up a white-and-black variety, which would likely make “a delicious meal,” Narango said.
