Date: 10/08/2007

Number: 1

From about 6:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. yesterday (10/8/07) evening we observed at least 200 to 300 hundred Monarchs flying into our yard and roosting in our Sycamore and Oak tree. There were definitely more in the sycamore tree. It is now 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday the 9th and so far they are still all there.

An additional comment on the butterflies. They were trailing strands of what looked like spiderweb. Does anyone know what that is and/or why the butterflies are doing that?

Editor's Note: Evidently this was spider silk that was trailing behind the monarchs. The silk was from tiny, young spiders that were dispersing by "ballooning." Like the young spiders in Charlotte's Web, they were carried away by the wind on silk threads.

"The offspring come out of the egg sack, go to the highest point and raise their abdomen up in the air and release a threat of silk," spider expert David Moellendorf told Austin's KXAN News radio. As the silk gets longer, the wind currents pick up the spiders and carry them away. In this way they disperse to new habitat, just as seeds blow in the wind to a new place to grow.

Oklahoma City, OK

Latitude: 35.4 Longitude: -97.5

Observed by: Virginia
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