Date: 04/03/2014

Number: 1

At 1:20 pm, I found a very worn monarch resting on a small shrub at Lowe's Home Improvement store in Stillwater, OK. First one I've seen this year (Krista, my technician, saw the one I reported a few days ago in Oklahoma City). Appeared to be a female (I checked for but did not see androconia).

Dr. Lincoln Brower asked:
Could it have been bred in a nursery? Have you seen any wild ones?

Dr. Moranz responed:
It possible that it bred in a nursery and that it hitchhiked on nursery-grown plants as they were shipped to Lowes. However, due to its well-worn condition, I suspect it flew here on its own, and was attracted to the huge, multi-colored floral display at Lowes. My technician (an entomology senior at OSU) saw a monarch flying through Oklahoma City four days ago, which is only 65 miles south of us. And since then, we've had plenty of strong south winds to carry monarchs up from OKC (or even from northern Texas, where there have already been many sightings).

Stillwater, OK

Latitude: 36.1 Longitude: -97.1

Observed by: Ray
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