Date: 05/06/2001

Number: 1

Milkweed is up in the fields in at least one field in eastern PA! I checked
eighty plants in "my" swamp milkweed patch in Valley Forge National Park
today for eggs and larvae. Plants averaged between 1 to 8 inches tall. Last
Sunday (April 29) I checked this same field and did not find any milkweed at
all! On only one plant I found significant first instar damage and found on
the same leaf, a tiny caterpillar, way too tiny to identify with a naked eye.
I kept it on the milkweed and brought it home. It seemed very similar to
photos of a first instar caterpillar when I looked at it under a magnifying
lens this afternoon. However, this evening when I went to look at it again,
I could not find it. I would have thought if it were a Monarch caterpillar,
it would stay on the milkweed plant.

Haverford, PA

Latitude: 40 Longitude: -75.3

Observed by: Ann
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