Butterflies are vanishing. Not just a few, not just in one place—across the entire United States. Scientists have been tracking them, and the numbers don’t lie: a staggering 22% drop in total butterfly abundance from 2000 to 2020.
That’s not just a dip. That’s one in every five butterflies erased from existence in two decades. Elise Zipkin, an expert in quantitative ecology at Michigan State University, puts it bluntly: “To lose 22 percent across the continental U.S. in just two decades is distressing.” That’s scientist-speak for “we should all be very concerned.”
Zipkin and fellow researcher Nick Haddad have dedicated their careers to deciphering the fate of these creatures. Zipkin is the data mastermind, extracting truths from messy, incomplete records. Haddad, a terrestrial ecologist, actually walks the land, tracking some of the rarest butterflies before they disappear forever.
And disappear they have. Haddad doesn’t need a lab report to see it—his neighbors are already noticing. “Unprompted, they’ll say, ‘I’m seeing fewer butterflies in my garden. Is that real?’” he says. “My neighbors are right. And it’s so shocking.”
Their latest study, published in *Science*, crunched the numbers from over 76,000 surveys and 12.6 million butterfly records, compiled from 35 monitoring programs. The results? A slow-motion biodiversity crisis, unfolding in silence. The only exception was the Pacific Northwest, where butterfly abundance appeared to increase by 10%. But before anyone celebrates, that bump was mostly due to a single species—the California tortoiseshell—experiencing a temporary boom. Hardly reassuring.
Butterflies, unlike many other insects, are meticulously tracked by scientists and volunteers alike. Until now, most studies zoomed in on a handful of species (hello, monarchs) or focused on specific regions. This study is the first to cast a nationwide net, revealing a disturbing trend on a continental scale.
It’s easy to ignore a missing butterfly. One less flicker of color in the backyard doesn’t sound like the end of civilization. But these winged creatures are environmental barometers—living indicators of ecosystem health. If they’re vanishing, something much bigger is unraveling.
Five Fast Facts
- Butterflies taste with their feet—because why waste time chewing when you can step on your food first?
- The Xerces blue butterfly, once native to California, was driven to extinction by urban development in the 1940s.
- Some species, like the Monarch, migrate up to 3,000 miles—a feat that, if scaled to human size, would be like running 50 marathons in a row.
- Butterfly wings aren’t actually colorful—they’re covered in microscopic scales that reflect light in ways that trick the human eye.
- NASA once sent butterflies to space to study how zero gravity affects their metamorphosis. Yes, there were astronaut caterpillars.