Raymond Myers, a retired school administrator, has always been interested in science. Throughout his life he read extensively the works of Darwin and Mendel and became a layman´s expert in plant genetics. But it wasn´t until he retired to Mazatlán ten years ago that he caught the butterfly bug and began raising them in the heart of the Golden Zone. “It started”, he said, “when I lived in a third floor apartment at the Gaviotas Racket Club. My balcony overlooked an empty lot which was rapidly becoming a trash can for the neighborhood. I decided to clean it up. I planted a vegetable and flower garden, built terraces and planted banana and papaya trees.” He soon noticed that the garden was attracting a year round influx of a wide variety of butterflies. He bought a book on butterfly species and began a naturalist´s patient study of the habits and migratory routes of his newfound interest. “I was able to single out three common species of butterflies here in Mazatlán, the Julia, the Gulf Fritillary and the Zebra Longwing. With research I found out they require the Passion Flower plant to reproduce, so I bought seeds from the States, Australia and Costa Rica and planted five different varieties. Some of the Passion Flower plants take ten years to flower. You really have to be patient.” When Raymond and his wife Marianne moved to Lomas de Mazatlán, they left a few of the Passion Flower vines growing in the baldio-turned-garden, and transplanted the rest to their new home. Raymond´s backyard is now a nursery of seedling plants designed to attract nesting butterflies. The walls are covered with mature Passion Flower vines ablaze in brilliant orange and red flowers. His practiced eye picks out an inch long chrysalis, or cacoon, hiding behind a broad leaf. When

he gently touches it, the larvae moves. “It´s interesting,” he says, “that these Passion Flowers are actually toxic, but my butterfly species are immune. They eat the plant, but if a bird eats them, the bird dies. Birds can actually identify the color of toxic butterflies and avoid them. No so, though, with the giant white butterflies we have in abundance here. The birds love those.” Of particular interest to Raymond is the Zebra Longwing species. These, he says, sleep in colonies at night and follow the same “trap lines” daily searching for food. Like the Monarch butterfly, they tend to be long-lived because of high protein in their pollen selection. But unlike the long march of the Monarch, the Zebra´s migration path is confined to Central America, up through Mexico, into Texas and back. He is concerned that this year migrating butterflies are few and far between. He suspects that the recent spraying for Dengue fever in parts of Mexico may have interfered with nature´s balance. Always the scientist, he says he will monitor this year´s migration, and next year´s, until he knows for sure. Raymond´s dream is to establish a commercial butterfly exporting business, as has been done with great success in San José, Costa Rica. His idea is to put abandoned land to use, train and employ local rural farmers to raise butterfly chrysalis for export to collectors, breeders and museums around the world. He´s sure it can be done. It will just take time. In the meanwhile, if you´re driving out to the airport or beyond and see a white haired gentleman traipsing through the fields inspecting plants, turning leaves over and writing in a notebook, that will be Raymond. He will be looking for some native Passion Flower plants to add to his nursery. He knows they are out there somewhere.