Date: 09/11/2015

Number: 2

I tagged a male monarch in my garden on 9/3/15, #UMW 266. He looked like he had traveled from afar. Even missing part of a wing. I have seen him in my garden almost everyday for 8 days. He eats and flits about heartily. My son and I checked the garden again around 4:30 on 9/11/15 and found him with a friend! Mating! I tagged her too. Though I'm wondering if they are heading south. I'm also curious about the mating aspect too. If they are migrating shouldn't they be in diapause?

Response from Elizabeth Howard, Journey North:

Thanks so much for writing in and sharing this fascinating observation. First a question: Did you see monarchs all summer long or did they appear recently?

There are two possibilities regarding diapause (for each butterfly; they may not be the same):

1. Local Monarchs
If they’ve been there all summer, it’s likely that the all monarchs simply haven’t gone into diapause yet. Diapause is triggered by daylight, temperature, and milkweed quality which are longer, warmer and higher, respectively, in TN than in the north. Also, generations do overlap; you may have seen older butterflies, individuals of the pre-migration generation, since breeding monarchs live for up to ~6 weeks.

2. Northern Monarchs
Another possibility is that one or both came down from the north. Some northern monarchs go south BUT ARE NOT in diapause; they produce a final generation in the south but do not migrate to Mexico; their offspring will. See 5th generation

Documenting sightings like this show why citizen science is so valuable! We're excited to learn about this.

Morristown, TN

Latitude: 36.2 Longitude: -83.3

Observed by: Stacey
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