Last year, the mottled orange, black and white wings of 26,000 western monarch butterflies blanketed the forested grove of Ellwood Mesa in Goleta as the species embarked on its annual migration to Central California to escape the chill of winter. But in recent months, the swarms of easily recognized insects have been markedly absent — an indication of a trend revealing their numbers are “severely down” across the state, according to the Xerces Society, a nonprofit that closely monitors the population as part of its conservation efforts focused on invertebrate species.
As of October, just 34 butterflies were counted at the site, and last week, that number plummeted to just four, Emma Pelton, senior conservation biologist for the organization, confirmed to SFGATE.
“There are essentially no butterflies left there,” she said of the preliminary data, noting the organization does not release its official numbers until late January, following its third and final count in December. “But the story is similar across all sites.”…