Monarch butterflies are common sights in much of the U.S., but millions of them depend on winter nesting grounds in central Mexico. The AP’s Jessica Bernstein-Wax reports that an extra $4.6 million yearly will go into protection of the forest in an existing, 124,000-acre preserve. Of some interest is that, as the story says, the butterflies that leave the preserve each spring are not the same ones that return the following fall. They are their great great grandchildren, it appears. How do they find their way? Mystery abounds.

Mexico’s is the biggest but the butterflies have other favored winter retreats, such as Pacific Grove in California. For more on that, see the piece in the Monterey Herald by Larry Parsons.

Grist for the Mill: Mexidata excerpt from speech by President Felipe Calderón.

Other monarch news: The NYTimes’s James Kanter reports the latest news on the monarch as rallying symbol for some opponents of genetically engineered crops. Corn (or maize) carrying the gene for the bacterial (BT) toxin, for insect pest resistance, might affect the butterflies’ caterpillers. Last time anybody looked, it appears, few monarchs feed on or lay their eggs in corn fields.

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