Date: 10/15/2015

Number: 500

Never have seen so many!

Editor’s Note: We contacted Texas naturalist Carol Cullar, Rio Bravo Nature Center, to ask whether she could see Queens in this photo along with monarchs. Here is her response:

I blew up the image and actually counted 4 confirmed Queens and perhaps 3 others that were impossible to confirm. It's now uncommon for us to find a few Queens mixed in with Monarchs when we are netting large clusters at night. We also find black swallowtails as well. In a cluster of a single netting of 76 butterflies we could find a swallowtail and a queen, but not every time.

I do wonder if Queens are moving with the Monarchs and being counted. I suspect so, but not in sufficient numbers to skew any data. This was not a BIG fall for Queens. I had a few in August, but they were light in number. There were far more Queens in the early Spring than later.

In contrast, back in 2010 (I believe) we had large numbers of Monarchs moving straight south from Abilene, Tx, Between Abilene and San Angelo 90 mi. SW, I ran into a 50 mile stretch of almost exclusively Queens--almost NO monarchs mixed in. 100s of Queens all migrating right down Hwy 277.

Some questions about Queen migration:

1. Do Queens migrate every year? I don't know.
2. When the Monarch migration is heavy, do Queens get swept up into a chemical scent trail and just join the monarchs?

Fort Stockton, TX

Latitude: 30.7 Longitude: -102.8

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