Date: 03/20/2015

Number: 1

Our field people found evidence of a monarch (only a wing) and eggs in Antiguo Morelos County in the south of Tamaulipas (22.550729 N, -99.081872 W)

I think that monarchs was migratory, because the wing looks damaged. Also the monarchs do not live during the winter in these areas. Areas like El Cielo Biosphere Reserve do have monarchs around the year. El Cielo is 80 kilometers north of Antiguo Morelos county (estimated latitude 22.92 N, -99.03).

I have 500  people in the field in the state of Tamaulipas. We are waiting the big migration and we are working with a hundreds students in the south of Tamaulipas for report native Asclepias, monarchs, eggs, larvae and crysalids. With this, we will have a lot of information about this year in order to document that south Tamaulipas (tropical area), is important for monarch breeding.

Biol. Alfonso Banda Valdez
Director of Natural Resources
Tamaulipas State Goverment
Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas
Mexico

Editor's note: We sent the image of the wing to butterfly specialist Dr. Andrew Brower (son of renown monarch expert Dr. Lincoln Brower) who commented: "The wing is Dione juno (ventral surface - see attached photo for comparison)." The Juno Silverspot, Juno Longwing, or Juno Heliconian (Dione juno) is a butterfly species of the subfamily "Heliconiinae, in the family Nymphalidae (a neotropical family of butterflies totally distinct from the Danaidae) found from the southern USA to South America.

Antiguo Morelos, TAM

Latitude: 22.6 Longitude: -99.1

Observed by: Alfonso
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