Date: 12/17/2020

Number: 2

As seems quite common this time of year, with temps sometimes hovering around freezing overnight, and anywhere from low 50s to low 70s during the day, imminently eclosing Monarchs have a rough go. I'll notice the afternoon prior to a very cold night, the chrysalises (outdoors) are black and orange. I may not check them for a couple of days, but invariably I'll find malformed butterflies have emerged (such as the ones below). The one on the left didn't even appear to have the black and white scales on its abdomen, so I didn't test for OE. The wings of the one on the right had an odd curl to them, but otherwise looked fine -- except it didn't take flight despite being in the sun for a few hours. It tested negative for OE. After 24 hours, it was still crawling around in the same area on the grass.

Missouri City, TX

Latitude: 29.6 Longitude: -95.6

Observed by: A
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