capmike Loc: New Bern, NC

I’ve noticed the same thing here in Eastern NC. Usually we are awash in butterflies. We have several milkweed plants, leaves usually gone by now. Still haven’t seen a single Monarch.

kenneil Loc: Jupiter, Fl, Ochlocknee, Ga, Iron Range, Mn

I'm in SW Georgia and my butterfly bush has been awash in swallowtails and gulf fritillarys. Can't compare to the past, we are only here this summer because of Covis. Haven't seen the first monarch. We do have some tropical milkweed for them.
Tigers, zebras, spice bush, giants and black swallowtails. Long wing zebras and some little guys too. ;-)

Tom DePuy Loc: Waxhaw, N.C.

Same thing here in North Carolina,
I've seen a few, but nothing like what I usually see, and a much later start to seeing them.
I have kinda noticed that with some other things that I usually see by now also.
And I have also seen things this year that I have never had here before....Strange year by far.

Tom

Tom

amyinsparta Loc: White county, TN

They must have gone the way of lightening bugs. I have lived at my present address for ten years. When we moved into our brand new house, the bugs were everywhere. I have many, many photos to prove it. This summer, I'm lucky to find any in the wooded area behind my house. I feel we are in for a worrisome future. And its happening all across the globe. I suppose we will know what we have wrought when the South Americans finish burning the Amozon forests. Too many people on too little land.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

When I was in high school, in the 60's, two things were going to kill us all any minute, one was over population, the other was global cooling. Wildlife is affected by both I reckon, and cold winters in my area probably kill more wildlife than anything. For sure, in my lifetime, butterflies and fireflies vary significantly in population year to year.
This year seems to have been hard on both, perhaps too cold, or too warm, too dry, too many predators, who knows? My life experience has told me not to get overly excited about it, although the deer hunters must have disappeared because white tail deer are everywhere, yet when I was a kid, never saw one deer in my neighborhood, now they are a major nuisance.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

docshark says the dragonflies have been scarce for him as well. I don't know what is going on other than the suggestion that it is the weather right now.
I feel fortunate that I have not noticed a decline this year in insects, butterflies or otherwise, in my neck of the woods.