The Monarch butterfly will not be able to survive wet and freezing cold temperatures. If this is indeed true, this may mean that cold and wet weather brought on by global warming, may result in a dwindling Monarch butterfly population.

Monarch butterfly migration

Every year just before winter, millions of Monarch butterflies travel from the Canadian border to the mountaineous jungles of Mexico to avoid the cold weather in the north. After spending the winter in Mexico, these butterflies will start their journey back up north in spring. Along the way, they will stop over at milkweed fields to lay eggs. When these eggs hatch, the next generation of butterflies will continue their journey back north to the Canadian border.

Recently global warming has caused temperatures world wide to increase. Computer simulations show that over the next 50 years, more rainfall is expected in the Monarch butterflies’ resting ground in Mexico. The increased rainfall and continuous cold weather will cause crystals to form on the butterflies’ wings and eventually lead to the annihilation of a large percentage of the butterfly population. This is what happened in January of 2002, when almost 80% of the Monarch butterflies died in Mexico.

You should be able to prove that your hypothesis is true -  that Monarch butterflies will not be able to survive wet and freezing cold temperature. You should observe that the butterflies will die if their wet wings are exposed to freezing temperatures.

Changing weather conditions can be lethal to many fragile living organisms like the Monarch butterflies. Under these circumstances, the butterflies will need to adapt to new weather conditions, and find a new resting place for the winter or risk becoming extinct.

What would happen if the science fair project were to be repeated by placing the butterflies inside the cold storage room without wetting their wings first?

The science fair project can be repeated to find out more precisely how many hours or days  the Monarch butterflies with wet wings will be able to survive in freezing temperatures.