"For the first time in California, citizen scientists like Hernandez can join the effort to track monarch butterflies thanks to Blu+, a new generation of ultra-light tags that communicate using Bluetooth technology. Through the Project Monarch app, available for iPhone or Android, anyone with a smartphone can assist researchers in monitoring migration patterns by scanning their surroundings. If a Blu+ tagged butterfly flutters within a 100-yard range, the phone detects the signal and uploads data to a central database."
"Those data points will help unveil how monarchs move about in overwintering sites like Santa Cruz. We want to identify what a monarch's overwintering path looks like, said Ashley Fisher of the Xerces Society, which works on the conservation of insects and other invertebrates. Fisher and her colleagues are hoping to better understand what prompts monarchs to abandon or remain in overwintering sites."
Ultra-light Blu+ tags using Bluetooth allow tagged western monarchs to be detected by smartphones running the Project Monarch app within about a 100-yard range. When a Blu+ tagged butterfly passes nearby, the phone detects the signal and uploads locational data to a central database for researchers. Those data points aim to reveal monarch overwintering paths in coastal California and to clarify what prompts monarchs to remain at or abandon overwintering groves. Western monarch migration follows a fragmented route from inland valleys and mountain ranges west of the Rockies to coastal eucalyptus, cypress, and Monterey pine groves that shelter the insects from winter storms.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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