Date: 01/08/2009

Number: 1

About the second week in January (est. 01/08)I noticed a bunch of caterpillars on my milkweed (I believe that it is A. curassivica). I collected about five of them and put them into cages and gave to a some children that I know (3 different households) so they could watch the metamorphosis. All five of the butterflies have come through and been released.

I usually see a monarch or two during the winter. This is the first time that I've had babies. Host plants are not reliable in the winter. We've had a couple light freezes, down to 28 degrees, but there is still some milkweed available (curassivica is the only one that I've been able to grow. Haven't tried many others). In fact the ones that the butterflies stripped last month are leafing out already (2/10). Usually I would have no milkweed by now.

Baton Rouge, LA

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -91.2

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