Date: 09/07/2018

Number: 4

I’ve been participating in project Monarch Health to determine the prevalence of OE in the wild population. Bringing in caterpillars already grown to 4th and 5th instars and feeding them on unwashed plants or catching adult butterflies. Each also gets a Monarch Watch tag. This is the first year my new milkweed plants are mature enough to support a substantial number of hungry caterpillars. Many eggs are laid but survival rates are low. Since August 30th I’ve released only 8 monarchs from the first 15 caterpillars brought in. 4 beautiful males yesterday were so eager to fly after being pent up for the first 20 hours because of bad weather that I decided they were strong enough to be given the chance. They had spent as much time with the flight cage outside as possible the previous day. But only got about 8 hours of freedom to test their new wings and proboscis before the winds picked up and it started raining on and off. I hope I made the right choice for them as only one more morning today gave them that chance before remnants of tropical storm Gordon will be rolling through for the next few days.

Elsmere, KY

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -84.6

Observed by: Jypsi
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