(Mission, TX) – The new year began with an unprecedented “bloom” of butterflies at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, with a record-breaking 87 species documented for the day.

While the center has long been recognized for its remarkable volume and diversity of wild, free-flying butterflies, this unseasonal total on the first day of the new year is shocking the most seasoned of butterfliers.

Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, president and founder of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA), which established the center in 2002, stated, “On a typical January day, one would expect to see about 25 species at the center, according to data NABA has collected over the last 20 years. This data set—the largest and longest running collection of butterfly counts across North America—is especially useful in establishing trends and evaluating anomalies, such as this.”

This exceptional occurrence at a truly exceptional place follows a year full of unusual weather events, starting with Winter Storm Uri in February, which brought a killing freeze to the Rio Grande Valley. Uri sent plants into shock and killed butterflies in all stages of their lifecycle. Then, Hidalgo County experienced the wettest June-July period since 1941, when official precipitation recording began.

Instead of welcoming regular rainfall, starting around Labor Day in September, the region was struck by a heat wave that lasted through the end of December, with this four-month period becoming the second hottest of all time. In addition, November saw rainfall more than three times the monthly average, and the last ten days of December registered temperatures 12-16° F above average.

On January 1, 2022, Mission, Texas reached a record-breaking 92° F, with the number of recorded butterfly species running just slightly behind this all-time high.

The National Butterfly Center sits at the northernmost edge of the neotropics in North America. While this area is uniquely hospitable to butterflies in a normal year, 2021—especially the last month—brought a multitude of migrants from the interior of Mexico and beyond. These very special “strays” include the first documented sighting of a Lugubrious Blue-Skipper in the United States at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, on Tuesday, December 28, 2021. Also spotted that same day was another spread-winged skipper, the ultra-rare Pale Sicklewing, and a Goodson’s Greenstreak, last photographed in the U.S. in 1994. In addition, Orion Cecropians and Pale-spotted Leafwings, commonly found in Central and South America, delighted visitors to the National Butterfly Center in deep South Texas.

“Butterflies are a key indicator of climate change,” asserts Glassberg. “Not only are their numbers declining in North America as a result of increased aridity due to climate change, but we see butterfly species rapidly ranging northward in response to the increasing warmth, especially in the winter. The relationship between butterflies and a warming world should be of peculiar interest to scientists, evolutionary biologists and climatologists, alike.”

To learn more about the National Butterfly Center, and how you can join us, visit www.nationalbutterflycenter.org. Your annual membership or charitable gift impacts the beauty of our community and helps preserve the biologically diverse, natural treasures of deep South Texas.

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The National Butterfly Center is committed to ‘Growing Connections’ between people, plants, and the winged wonders that pollinate and propagate all that grows around us. We do this through educational and environmental initiatives that cultivate meaningful understanding of the processes that create sustainable ecosystems. The Center is open to the public, for visitors and members, seven days/week.