>>So how are yours doing? I have been perusing my milkweed but am only finding milkweed beetle. Think it is an off year for the milkweed tiger moth cats as I have seen very few. About 4 or 5 years ago we had a very high density. What part of the country are you in? Just curious as to your monarch/swt season(s).
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>>The geographic variation page is interesting - seems we have low % here in the northeast. Lincoln Brower (one of the researchers) spoke at an insect symposium I attended last summer. I met his wife who does reserch on the Saturniid moths.
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>>lele
I am just outside of DC. The NE doesn't usually see large numbers of cats at this time of year .. you need to look for your cats earlier as those cats are what become the adults that start off the migration. I often don't bother to start looking around down here until the last week of July...so if you are further north then late June into early July is likely to be your cat season.
This is turning into a bumper crop year for me (more than makes up for the last few dismal years). I think the monarchs are going out of their way to make up for last year's horrible numbers across the nation.
At the moment, I have 13 chrsyalis' right now and 4 more cats about to go in. I have collected several hundred eggs and have probably about 100 cats in early instars with more hatching every day. I've already tagged one adult monarch (he BEGGED to be tagged... tried to beat his way through the window into my truck lol). I managed to get some samples off the abdomen to put under a microscope later to look for the OE spores... didn't see anything noticeable offhand. I am keeping the sample as a reference. Until I can collect and see for myself what a sample from an infected individual looks like it will take a lot of practice on the testing.
My early cats (the 30 I ordered and 1st batch of 13 eggs I collected from my yard) didn't make it. At first they were doing fine, then into the latter part of the 2nd instar I had sudden die offs start occuring. I had been feeding milkweed from my yard. I think perhaps a neighbor had their yard sprayed with something and it carried on the wind. When the die offs started I quickly went to a different source of milkweed but in the end I still lost all of them. I am still collecting any eggs I find off the milkweed at home every few days, but am not using any more of those leaves to feed as I can't trust the safety of it now. I am keeping those eggs sep. from any I collect elsewhere and am keeping close watch getting the cats off the leaf remnants as soon as they hatch in case the milkweed is still unsafe for eating. I don't want to take any chances with them. I have several other milkweed sources so it's not a problem for me to forgo using the stuff at home though it is less convienent.
Today I happened to collect about 3 dozen cats and approx. 75 eggs from a spot along a road on the way to work. It's in a spot where dept. of transportation mows often ...used to be a wonderful patch of milkweed this spring until the mowing started up. The milkweed resprouted since the last mowing and, while it's still small the migrating monarchs are actively laying eggs, the grass is getting tall enough from the recent rains that it won't be long before it all gets mowed again. I want to save as much as I can before the next mowing so I'll be working overtime on checking that spot compared to some other spots I like to visit.
Milkweed tussock moths have been bad around my house which isn't unusual. I have some milkweed beetles and aphids too but they don't get out of control like the moths do. At work the milkweed patch there it's a different matter.. the aphids and beetles just tear everything up. I sorta have to collect eggs there just so the cats have a chance to grow up rather than get killed by the ants who farm their aphids.
I have high hopes this year of using up all of my tags on the monarchs. However, I know not to count my bflys until after they become bflys lol. Bewteen the eggs and cats I have now I stand a good chance of meeting my goals even barring the odd glitch or two.
Oh yeah.. my prometheus cats I found a while back.. two of the five emerged last week...one definitely female as she laid eggs in the cage. Dunno if they are good or not.. we'll see soon.
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Wyvern
