Ah, the many puzzling and extraordinary wonders of nature.

I find it difficult to comprehend the numerous miracles that occur each year within our natural realm.

One of the most amazing occurrences is the transformation of a rather nondescript black, yellow and white striped worm-like caterpillar into the dazzling and colorful adult monarch butterfly.

In truth, the life cycle of all butterflies and moths is a phenomenal act of nature.

The monarch is one of our most common butterflies and possibly the one butterfly species that most people can identify. Monarchs belong to the milkweed family, Danaidae. The family includes the queen and viceroy butterflies.

Monarchs are the only butterflies that truly migrate. Some monarchs travel up to 80 miles a day while migrating the approximate 2,000 miles to the mountains of Mexico.

They spend the winter on tree trunks and branches with hundreds of millions of other monarchs that left their summer homes to escape the cold northern temperatures.

These long-distance travelers rely on stored body fat to survive the winter. Most monarchs mate in early spring before they leave Mexico on the way to their northern home ranges.

The migrating brood lives about eight months producing the offspring that emerge during summer. This generation lives about two to three weeks -- just enough to mate and lay the eggs that will develop into this year's migrating brood.

Unfortunately, the monarch butterfly numbers are down this year. One of the major questions is: With low numbers produced during this year's breeding season, how many monarchs will be migrating to Mexico?

This year, many observers did not see their first monarch until July. This was because of the depleted numbers found across the entire monarch range.

Two main factors are believed to have led to this:

1. The numbers in Mexico were low last year. Only an estimated 60 million monarchs wintered over in Mexico last winter. That is 80 percent below the normal 350 million monarch average.

2. This spring's unusually low temperatures throughout the mid-section of the United States delayed the northern monarch migration. This caused the first monarch generation in the southern areas to develop slowly, thus delaying the normal migration schedule.

The low numbers, cold temperatures and slow spring migration produced few monarchs across the north in June. This trend continued in July. The monarchs needed a productive summer breeding season for the populations to recover.

During a normal breeding season, monarchs produce a new generation in about 30 days. This provides enough time for four generations. The migrating monarchs on their way to Mexico this fall are the great-great grandchildren of the monarchs that left Mexico in spring.

The monarchs' late spring arrival to their breeding ranges suggests most monarchs did not have enough time to produce the usual number of summer generations. Since monarch numbers tend to increase with each new generation the overall population migrating to Mexico is predicted to be low again this winter.

Climatologists predict that future summers will be hotter than usual and will be accompanied by extensive periods of drought. If the predictions come true, climate conditions will continue to be detrimental to monarch numbers, as well as the life cycles of many wildlife species.

If you want to attract butterfly species to your property, use a small portion of your land to grow milkweeds and spicebushes. Milkweeds serve as the host plant for monarchs. Spicebushes are the host for swallowtail butterflies.

You can also plant asters, goldenrods, purple coneflowers, pussy willows, lilacs, blueberries, phlox, zinnias, petunias and other nectar producers to add beauty to your property while they encourage adult butterflies of various species to visit your yard.

Do not plant butterfly bushes. Although they provide nectar and attract butterflies, they are not host plants. They are very invasive, spread quickly and crowd out the native plants.

That's the way I see it!

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