Monarchs Matter: Teen Butterfly Guardians
By Cynthia Zhang
Cynthia Zhang is a youth environmentalist, a co-chair of ReWild’s Social Media Committee, and the founder of Monarchs Matter, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness and protecting the vulnerable monarch butterfly population.
An incoming junior at Great Neck South High School, she strives to inspire a new generation of environmental leaders on Long Island and around the world through social media.
Twelve Teen butterfly guardians
From a creamy-white egg, to a very hungry caterpillar, then a gold-speckled chrysalis, and finally the iconic orange and black-veined butterfly—12 high school students witness the full, eye-opening metamorphosis of a monarch butterfly by raising them at home through the Raise, Tag, and Release (RTR) Summer Program, in partnership with the ReWild Summer Program to Fight Hunger and Climate Change.
“Watching the caterpillars from their small, fearful youth into still chrysalises, before emerging as vivid butterflies taught me how what we consider ‘nature’ is, in fact, not all that different from us. [...] While I never thought of nature as a flat and one-dimensional concept, this experience has caused me to view all nature with a sense of familiarity and curiosity that I didn’t feel before,” said RTR student Neil Marantz.
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To ensure that everyone gets a chance to raise a monarch, each student receives two caterpillars from two Monarch Watch Rearing Kits (28-32 larvae) funded by the Bow Seat True Blue Fellowship, in addition to any wild eggs found from surveying milkweed sites (more details in our next blog!). However, the magic doesn’t happen on its own! Not unlike the classic children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, monarch larvae eat (and produce frass) non-stop, day and night, only pausing to find a secluded spot in their container to molt. In fact, monarch caterpillars grow up to 3,000 times their original size through 5 instar stages in just two weeks! To keep them fed, students visit the ReWild Garden at the Dodge Homestead and the Science Museum of Long Island to collect a bag of 14 common milkweed leaves¹, which lasts until the caterpillars transform into chrysalises, bringing their frenzied eating to an end.
Then, it’s just a waiting game. While the chrysalis may appear unchanged for 8 to 12 days, rapid reconstruction is happening inside. The caterpillar’s organs dissolve, and the butterfly’s body parts begin to take shape. Within 24 hours of emergence, the chrysalis becomes transparent, revealing the monarch butterfly’s vibrant colors for the first time. Finally, the chrysalis splits open, giving way to the butterfly as it breaks free into its final form, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will never be forgotten.
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RTR student Ava Cheung reflected, “During this program, I watched not only the caterpillars metamorphose, but myself too. I noticed that after this program, I adopted a new perspective toward monarch butterflies, pollinators, and native plants. I became more appreciative of them and was able to love all aspects of nature better. I began to see monarchs and pollinators more than just insects, and it helped a lot with my fear of them.”
Monarchs Matter will continue to host the RTR Program until September 8, inviting two more groups of 12 teen butterfly guardians to embark on this transformative journey.
1. Milkweed is the sole host plant of monarch caterpillars, making planting milkweed more critical than ever as the monarch butterfly population plummeted to its second lowest count on record last winter. Read our last blog to learn about how you can join our milkweed mission.
become a butterfly Guardian: Resources
Sign up to Monarch Mail for updates on Monarchs Matter’s Monarch Manual, an all-in-one guide for raising and tagging monarchs, coming soon!
Contact us to receive funding and guidance to start a local chapter of the RTR Program.
Order monarch rearing and tagging kits from Monarch Watch. (To ensure responsible rearing, the Federal Endangered Species Act recommends raising no more than 10 monarchs per individual or family.)
Stay tuned for more summer monarch magic from Monarchs Matter!
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For more information and updates about Monarchs Matter, visit www.MonarchsMatter.net or follow us on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook.