Date: 01/15/2005

Number: 1

The annual January monarch larva explosion is once again occurring
here in my backyard habitat in St. Petersburg, FL. I have recovered
over 100 5th instar larva from the wild over the past two weeks. I
began discovering the larva around the first of the year. Prior to
that, very few reached maturity. Temperatures here have been 8-9
degrees above normal for the past two weeks, but now have dipped to
their norms of 65-70 degrees daytime to 50-55 degrees or thereabouts
at night.

The larva are forming pupae as I write. They appear, for the most
part, full sized and healthy.

If anyone else in FL is observing the same situation with monarch
larva, perhaps they could post a report.

Contributed to Monarch Watch

St. Petersburg, FL

Latitude: 27.8 Longitude: -82.6

Observed by:
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