Meadows and Monarchs: A Discussion on Pollinators with Lepidopterist, Victor DeMasi

Through images and conversation, Victor DeMasi, lepidopterist, will transport you to his pollinator meadow in Redding, Connecticut. Along the way we will view some of the rare and common species he has seen there in 40 years of stewardship. Victor will explain life histories of some of our species and how a butterfly garden promotes a diversity of pollinators.

Discussions will include the importance of insects to our well being, butterflies in our changing environment and invasive plant species. The complex demise of the Monarch Butterfly will receive particular emphasis, as will a discussion of ways to attract pollinators to your own backyard.

Victor DeMasi is an extremely active member of The Pollinator Pathway. He was a wetland conservation officer in his hometown of Redding, Connecticut for 20 years, and is presently a curatorial affiliate at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven. He busies himself with preserving open space in town and preserving butterflies in the museum. His field work with butterflies contributed almost a thousand citations to the recently published Connecticut Butterfly Atlas. He has contributed articles to scientific publications and his mark-recapture studies with Swallowtail butterflies was recently cited in the book Swallowtails of the Americas. During the Pandemic he is doing a pollinator survey of two meadows in Redding CT.

Recent butterfly study trips with his spouse Roanna, a photographer, have been to the Amazon forest in Guyana, Nicaragua, and yearly studies in Montane, California to assess the impact of climate change on fauna. His work in South America was recently featured in The Yale Environmental News.