Date: 03/10/2006

Number: 1

I saw my first two monarchs of the season this morning about 10:30. I was walking across campus when I spotted my first one nectaring on some Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule). I went back to the office to get my net to see if I could catch it. I ended up chasing it a couple of hundred yards before it flew over a hedgerow. It stayed close to the ground the whole way, but I never got close enough to determine the gender. I finished my errand and on the way back to my office, I spotted another one. This time I was successful in netting it. It's was a female, so I brought it into the lab where I hope it will lay some eggs.

This is the earliest I have seen a monarch in south Arkansas. Without checking my records, I think the previous early record was somewhere around the 25th of March. I plan to go to a nearby prairie and see if the milkweed (Asclepias viridis) has sprouted.

Monticello, AR

Latitude: 33.6 Longitude: -91.8

Observed by: Jim
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