Date: 05/18/2014
Number: 1
Today on Iowa Insect Listserve
The specimen I saw was so fresh that I decided it must have been a viceroy. But then I read your Journey North monarch website and realized that I saw a generation that had descended from the adults that overwinters in Mexico. Since that first sighting my husband and I have seen Monarchs daily. We have 7 milkweed species in our 200 acre prairie-oak savanna restoration. On May 23 we began looking for Monarch eggs on the Ascelpias syriaca plants. (We have so many plants on our 200 acre prairie-oak savanna restoration that they are too numerous to count.) On May 25 the plants were from 3” - 22” tall. We found Monarch eggs on almost half the plants. And the Monarchs are still laying. Asclepias purpurascens are 25” tall. I haven’t checked the A. hirtilla or A. tuberosa yet. We have only one A. quadrifolia plant. It should be up and close to blooming but I couldn’t find it when I looked for it yesterday. We also have A. sullivantii and A. incarnata, so there is larval food available here from spring through fall. I’ve never looked for Monarch larvae on A. verticillata which is also abundant here.
On May 23 I visited a neighbor who is restoring 310 acres of prairie and savanna. I saw a Monarch there as well.
Leon, IA
Latitude: 40.7 Longitude: -93.7
Observed by: Paul
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