Date: 03/20/2005

Number: 1

This is easy: they are Painted Ladies, Vanessa cardui -- not Monarchs.

There has been a steady stream of them through my backyard in the
foothills of Altadena, California, so I netted one (3pm March 20, 2005).
They were all flying west parallel to the San Gabriel mountains.
It matched perfectly the photo at
http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4th/kkhp/1insects/paintedlady.html
but none of the other species shown at
http://www.public.iastate.edu/%7Emariposa/
so I'm pretty confident. I especially noted the gray/white/brown with
just a dash of red/orange when the wings are folded, and the white dots at
the end of the antenna. Alas, my camera is at the lab.

I'll go out on a limb and assume the other recent sightings are of the
same species.

Thanks for a great web site -- I at first thought they were Monarchs, but
google brought me right to your site and set me straight.

Pasadena, CA

Latitude: 34.1 Longitude: -118.2

Observed by:
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