Date: 11/02/2012

Number: 1

Eight monarchs finally emerged from chrysalis earlier this week, from caterpillars we collected from milkweed plants on the day before the first hard frost here in central PA. We have one chrysalis that should hatch tomorrow, then that finally ends the cat raising season.

These 8 could not be released due to Hurricane Sandy and now that freezing weather is here, would not be able to make it safely south for the winter. We are going to try to overwinter them to release in the spring. Thanks to the Monarch Watch and Florida Univ info, we are cooling, misting, feeding and otherwise doing our best to ensure their chances of survival. Fresh squeezed watermelon juice is their favorite.

This year was a good year for raising caterpillars from eggs and releasing the emerged monarchs. But again this year, like the last 5 years, the numbers of males emerging from collected eggs far exceeded the number of females.

Dauphin, PA

Latitude: 40.4 Longitude: -76.9

Observed by: Deb
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