Date: 09/22/2001

Number: 20

The past week has been a monarch bonanza here on the edge of and in the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia. My impression is
that large numbers came through on the cold front last week and have been
in a holding pattern while nectaring heavily through yesterday. Virtually
all are in mint condition.

Today (24 September
2001) another cold front is coming through with periodic heavy rain. It will
be interesting to see what happens as it passes over us......

Since 19 September 2001 there
have been numerous monarchs nectaring on Buddleas, Solidago, Asclepias
curassavica, and various cultivated asters in our butterfly gardens at home
near Roseland VA and at Sweet Briar College, in Amherst, VA.

On Saturday 22 September while sampling in our experimental garden at the
College, there were about 20 monarchs nectaring on a white flowered
varietal of Buddleia davidii. There was a light wind from the NNW and it
was warm and sunny, but as I approached them a cloud partially obscured
the sun and every one of the 20 monarchs flew up off the Buddleias where
they had been intently nectaring and flew with the wind to the south. This
response reminded me of what we termed the "cloud response" at the
overwintering sites in Mexico (see Calvert,W.H., L. P. Brower, and R. O.
Lawton. 1992. Mass flight response of overwintering monarch butterflies
(Nymphalidae) to cloud-induced changes in solar radiation intensity in
Mexico. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 46:97-105).

Yesterday (23 September 2001), in the local roadside fields and pastures,
monarchs were nectaring by the threes and fours on European thistle and on
the yellow native composite Actinomeris alternifolia.

Sweet Briar, VA

Latitude: 37.6 Longitude: -79.1

Observed by: Lincoln
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