Western monarch butterflies spend their winters in Pismo Beach and other sites on the central California coast. A few months later, they breed in the Central Valley and as far north and east as Idaho.

But where they go in between remains an open question.

Now, a group of researchers wants the public’s help to solve that mystery.

They would like anyone who spots a monarch north of Santa Barbara this spring to snap a quick picture. The researchers — from Washington State University, Tufts University, the nonprofit Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and the University of California, Santa Cruz — need photographic evidence, a date and a location to confirm where the monarchs might be living. (Photos and information can be emailed to monarchmystery@wsu.edu or uploaded on the iNaturalist app.)

“Something’s going on in early spring,” said Cheryl Schultz, a professor at Washington State University in Vancouver. Researchers know that winter survival isn’t the issue in the short-term, she said.