Date: 08/28/2005

Number: 1

Today is 8-28-05 and I have many monarchs nectaring in my fields, but I also notices several pupa with the signs of Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (Oe) on them. I don't usually look too hard for the pupal stage, but today I went looking under a farm wagon I had parked by some milkweed and under my porch. What I found were many pupa and more than half of them appeared to be infected with Oe. There is so much of it that the insides turn into a brown liquid. Also noticed several larva that had attempted to turn to pupa but apparently were so infected with Oe they died. I hope this is just localized to my area. I still have many hundreds of monarchs nectaring. I'm going to catch a few and see if they have Oe.
Is anyone else seeing much more Oe in their wild monarchs than they have observed in the past.?

Cannon Falls, MN

Latitude: 44.5 Longitude: -92.8

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