ROYAL VISITORS; MONARCH BUTTERFLIES ARRIVE, BUT THEY'RE STILL A RARE SIGHT.

Byline: Michael Coit Staff Writer

Fluttering in from the Rocky Mountains, regal monarch butterflies emblazoned in orange and black have begun roosting along the Southern California coast after amazing journeys of thousands of miles.

Typically monarchs are among the most conspicuous and easily recognized butterflies, but this year they are harder to find in magnificent, shimmering clusters. Tagging and monitoring efforts confirm concerns that this is one of the lowest monarch migrations ever to California.

And the likely villain is La Nina, the ocean-cooling trend that has left the Southland parched, disrupting the migration pattern by pushing the monarchs further north. Also having an impact is a pest sucking the life from eucalyptus trees, which provide foliage for monarchs, entomologists said.

``Populations are going to be low all over California this winter,'' said David Marriott, executive director of The Monarch Program, a nonprofit research and educational center in Encinitas. ``What people need to realize is these are insects and insect populations can fluctuate like a stock market graph.''

Only two years ago, the monarchs returned for the winter in astounding numbers with some 4 million spread from San Diego to Mendocino. This year's monarch migration is estimated at 500,000 compared with an annual average of some 2.5 million in California, Marriott said.

Stands of eucalyptus and sycamore trees, along with other coastal varieties south of Santa Barbara, are seemingly bare of the butterflies.

``I'm one of the spots on their migration route. But this year I'm not getting as many of them,'' said Ruth McCarty, who raises milkweed to attract monarchs to lay eggs behind her home in Somis in central Ventura County.

California state parks interpreter Cara O'Brien has never needed to look so hard for monarchs in the five years she has led monarch walks in Leo Carrillo and Point Mugu state parks.

``This year it took a lot longer to see them. November was a bust. December has only been a little better,'' O'Brien said.

Where to see them

Santa Monica Mountains canyons typically provide fine viewing sites, but monarch numbers are down at most spots. Leo Carrillo State Beach has about 300 monarchs compared to 4,500 last year. Pt. Mugu/Big Sycamore Canyon has about 600 compared to 5,000 last year.

Farther south at Zuma Beach, there are about 1,600 monarchs compared to 7,000 a year ago.

One of the region's bright spots is to the north at Camino Real Park, in Ventura, where as many as 1,800 have been counted compared with just 100 last year.

``I'm sure they will bounce back,'' said Walt Sakai, a Santa Monica College entomologist who helps tag and monitor monarchs in the region.

``The fact that it can move these great distances and the fact that they come back to these places year after year, that is what attracts people,'' Sakai explained. ``You have to be a pretty tough insect to do something like that.''

This stately butterfly inspires hope with its migration. The annual ritual of survival has played out since the ice age when monarchs were forced to retreat from northern winters.

``It's an amazing phenomenon. It shows that life goes on despite all the rigors,'' said Douglas Sutherland, an entomologist in Greenbelt, Md., who is retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Amazing journey

The monarch migrates southward in the fall and passes the winter in either California or Mexico depending on whether it originated west or east of the Rocky Mountains.

Monarchs set out for the Southland in September and October from a range reaching from the western Rocky Mountains to the eastern Sierra Nevadas, arriving here a month or so later.

As they hit the coast this winter, they found the climate too warm and dry, leaving the butterflys with fewer creeks.

``When it's too warm, they're not going to hibernate, they're going to fly around and act like a regular butterfly. They're smart little creatures and they know to fly north to a cooler place where they can spend the winter,'' Marriott explained.

Without new dangers, the monarchs face a variety of threats from their weeks as caterpillars to their months as mature butterflies.

As caterpillars, the monarch can be food for fly maggots. A caterpillar infection can leave mature monarchs with thin skins and vulnerable to dehydration.

Wind and heat, attacking wasps and birds are constant threats for monarchs on the wing.

Coastal development has removed winter sites. Pesticide spraying in the agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley can harm migrating monarchs directly or eradicate milkweed, the food plant for monarch larvae.

``The numbers will go up and down from one year to the next based on a lot of things. But on average there should be enough survival to provide an overwintering generation for the continuation of the species,'' Sutherland said.

A symbol of rebirth

Monarchs start to stir in spring as females look for milkweed to lay eggs. This will be the first of several generations that make up the eastern migration back to summer breeding grounds where the overwintering generation is born.

The evolution of a monarch from caterpillar to mature butterfly is as fascinating for some as its migration.

McCarty has been raising milkweed plants in her Somis back yard for 45 years to attract monarchs so she can capture a dozen for elementary school projects she does every year.

``They're beautiful. A lot of people see a correlation between the butterfly and rebirth, so it becomes a symbol of everlasting life,'' McCarty said.

Using wood cages crafted by her husband, McCarty places milkweed inside and waits for caterpillars to emerge from eggs. Each caterpillar then forms a chrysalis and evolves into a butterfly. McCarty presents the cages to classes before the butterflies emerge.

``That's always the rule, you have to let them to go,'' she said.

The sight of monarchs flying around and clustering in stands of trees in state parks helps O'Brien explain the need for preserving natural resources during her monarch walks, particularly with younger groups.

``My job is to inspire them to protect our parks because they are habitat and the butterflies are a link to us, more direct than people realize,'' she said. ``If we don't protect them, then we're not protecting ourselves.''

So revered is the monarch, the Entomological Society of America and a variety of garden and environmental organizations sought to have it recognized as the nation's official insect earlier in this decade.

``The monarch was an insect that showed a great ability for survival and adaptation, something practically everyone in the U.S. could identify with,'' Sutherland explained of the campaign.

But supporters of the honey bee buzzed with their own national insect proposal and Congress balked at both.

The monarch, though, did gain a measure of fame when the U.S. Postal Service gave it an official stamp in October, along with monarch caterpillar.

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES AT A GLANCE

The monarch butterfly is a large orange and black butterfly native to North America.

Famed for its annual migration, the monarch flies south in the fall and passes the winter in either California or Mexico, depending on whether it originated west or east of the Rocky Mountains. Its flight is powerful, lofty and soaring.

In overwintering areas, monarchs fly only during periods of warm, sunny weather. When spring arrives, they move northward and lay eggs in milkweed to produce a new generation.

The individuals that return in the fall are descendants of those that migrated northward in the spring, three or four generations removed.

SELECTED AREA SITES

Zuma Beach, Malibu.

Leo Carrillo State Beach, Malibu.

Pt. Mugu/Big Sycamore Canyon, north of Malibu.

Camino Real Park, Ventura.

Arundell Barranca Park, Ventura.

Tips: Monarchs form clusters on the leaves of trees and can be observed from October through April. Females lay eggs on milkweed, a willow-type plant with white flowers found in creeks and streams, beginning in March and April.

Source: The Monarch Program

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- 2 -- color) A monarch butterfly alights on a sycamore tree at Pt. Mugu State Park, above; right, park interpreter Cara O'Brien helps point out the butterflies to hikers. Monarch numbers are down this year throughout most of Southern California, possibly due to the effects of La Nina.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer

(3) no caption (monarch butterfly)

Box: Monarch butterflies at a glance (see text)