Date: 03/15/2008

Number: 1

We have had a few monarchs passing thru this week, but today the females I watched were "loading" the backyard curassavica with eggs. The one I watched closely for a long time was moderately faded, but a very, very faded monarch came into the garden for a few minutes. This second monarch, with its lack of color, was in great contrast and I am pretty certain it is a remigrant coming up out of Mexico. I got a few quick photos from late this afternoon (March 15) of what we call "loading" of the curassavica by the females. There were some first instars, two that can be seen in one of the photos. It is hard to tell when our winter larvae stop and our larvae from remigrants start, but we figure this to be the week. The center photo has 13 eggs. Some of the taller plants, at about 14", had as many as 42 eggs. http://www.asclepias.org/mar1508.html

Port Lavaca, TX

Latitude: 28.5 Longitude: -96.7

Observed by: Harlen E.
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