What is a butterfly tag, and what's the procedure for applying it?

Question

I was recently told that there are organizations, at least in the United States, that study migration of monarch butterflies by tagging them. The purpose, as in most animal migration monitoring, is to learn as much as possible about the animal, keep that animal population safe, and enable researchers to educate people regarding various species.

While banding and tagging of larger animals doesn't seem so difficult to me, I'm wondering some specific things about tagging a butterfly.

• What does the tag look like?

• What information does it contain?

• How and where on the butterfly is it applied in such a way that the animal isn't damaged, either at the time or later, and so that it doesn't fall off?

Answer 1

This web site seems to cover the details quite well.

• What does the tag look like?

Each tagged butterfly must have a tag code (three letters and three numbers) for this system to work. To insure that they do, we create a series of tag numbers using numbers and the alphabet. Each year receives its own unique series.

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• What information does it contain?

the web site doesn't go into a lot of details but basically a unique number to identify the butterfly and some contact details and the name of the organisation doing the tagging. I guess the idea is that people need to report them in if they're found.

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• How and where on the butterfly is it applied in such a way that the animal isn't damaged, either at the time or later, and so that it doesn't fall off?

We have adopted a tagging system in which the tag is placed over the large, mitten shaped cell (discal cell) on the underside of the hindwing of the monarch. ...

This method has proven to be very effective - the rate of tag recovery seems to be higher than for monarchs tagged on the wing margins (an older method). The discal cell position is closer to the center of lift and gravity for the butterfly and will not impede flight. More importantly, this tagging method appears to be less harmful to the butterflies.