Date: 08/22/2013

Number: 2

I observed a male & female chasing around in my garden today. I didn't observe actual mating, however, another friend has observed 3 mating pairs in his garden in the week of 8/23. He has looked for eggs, but has found none so far. My first observation of adult monarchs was on July 22nd. I had a female laying eggs in my garden for about 2 weeks. I collected as many as I could find, and today I had the first 2 emerge. In the next week I should have 15 more to release & tag. I have a few friends that raised about 5 monarchs earlier in the season(in mid June). The eggs were found along the Two Rivers & Sturgeon Bay lake shore areas. The numbers are very low compared to last year(another really low year) This is the first time I have ever had such a late rearing season where the only generation raised might be the migration generation! One silver lining, the incidence of OE is much lower, however tachnid fly deaths are @ 2/3's of the 3rd to 5th instar caterpillars found. In fact, in June & July the tachnid flies were all over my milkweed laying in wait for the caterpillars. The only 4th instar cat that I managed to find in mid July had 10 tachnid larve in it! So far, I've had a 100% success rate rearing the caterpillars found starting with eggs up to 2nd instar.

Mishicot, WI

Latitude: 44.3 Longitude: -87.6

Observed by: Ann
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