Date: 04/01/2009

Number: 1

April 11
I checked my +/- 10 plants quickly today, first check in a while. I found four large caterpillars, three of which were queens, and one was a monarch. I have not tried to search for chrysalids. Went out to do more but it is sprinkling rain. There have been wasps about, and there could still be more caterpillars than I found. I had anticipated finding both species, having had both female queens and monarchs together early on. I thought the ratio would favor monarchs, although with such low numbers the margin of error would be quite high, I guess.

This was my first time in 2009 to find large caterpillars and my first spring to have queens mixed in. The last two checks I made were Wed., Apr. 1 (6 about 1/4" long) and Tues. Apr. 7 (four about 1/2" long). Before that a couple of checks found 7 and the one previous found 14. I did not have time to check for eggs today, nor for freshly hatched babies.

Austin, TX

Latitude: 30.2 Longitude: -97.7

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