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The Montreal Insectarium is enlisting the public’s help to re-establish the beautiful monarch butterfly, whose numbers have greatly diminished over the last decade.

The Insectarium is heading up a national study of monarch breeding habitats, in co-operation with the Université du Québec à Rimouski, University of Ottawa, University of Calgary and Institut de recherche en biologie végétale (IRBV) at Université de Montréal.

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What is unique about this research project is that it is asking citizens to help compile data about the availability of milkweed, the monarch’s larval host plant.

“The focus is on reproduction — the reproductive capacity of habitat in Canada,” said Maxim Larrivée, head of Entomological Collections and Research at the Montreal Insectarium, who is spearheading the three-year, $216,000 project by Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“We want to be able to identify, through documenting milkweed abundance, to have a better idea of its presence. But also assess the productivity of the habitats where milkweed grows.”