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    Mainers take steps to nurture monarchs in decline - Photo courtesy of Anna Agell | of | Share this photo

    Ruth, a monarch butterfly raised by Anna Agell, in Agell’s yard. Ruth was named after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Agell says. Agell has been finding – and helping along – so many monarchs she resorted to naming them to keep track of them.

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    Mainers take steps to nurture monarchs in decline - Staff photo by Brianna Soukup | of | Share this photo

    Agell at her home in Brunswick last month. Agell has become a mother of sorts to monarchs in their various stages.

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    Mainers take steps to nurture monarchs in decline - Staff photo by Brianna Soukup | of | Share this photo

    Agell finds eggs on milkweed plants in her yard, brings them into her home and protects them as they grow and change, then releases them as butterflies.

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    Mainers take steps to nurture monarchs in decline - Staff photo by Brianna Soukup | of | Share this photo

    A monarch caterpillar in an enclosed habitat at Anna Agell's home. Agell has coaxed 15 monarchs along, from egg to caterpillar to flight so far in the summer of 2018, "considerably more than I have ever found before," she says.

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    Mainers take steps to nurture monarchs in decline - Staff photo by Brianna Soukup | of | Share this photo

    Agell holds up the lid on one of her larval enclosures to get a better view of the chrysalis hanging from the top.

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    Mainers take steps to nurture monarchs in decline - Staff photo by Brianna Soukup | of | Share this photo

    A monarch egg on a milkweed leaf that Agell found in her yard in Brunswick.

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    Mainers take steps to nurture monarchs in decline - Staff photo by Brianna Soukup | of | Share this photo

    Anna Agell holds an instar monarch caterpillar at her home in Brunswick.

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