Hmmm...

Now this is most interesting! BECAUSE of my butterfly-raising my hubby has LOTS of seed pods on his Plumeria AND this has been noted at the South Coast Plumeria Society meetings AND has now been noted in recent literature that butterflies WILL pollinate Plumeria (in the past, it was stated that butterflies do NOT pollinate Plumeria yet I have pictures to prove otherwise and hubby's large quantities of seed pods compared to others who have no or very few indicate otherwise).

So, as to whether or not the Monarchs actually OVIPOSIT on the leaves of the Plumeria?

I do not think I have EVER seen a Monarch oviposit on a Plumeria and we have a lot of Plumies in our yard, believe me. The Monarchs love to sit on the leaves and they love to hang out IN the Plumeria (I've observed this on many, many occasions) but I've never seen a single leaf with an egg. I have had Monarchs pupate on Plumeria because I have so much Milkweed planted nearby the Plumeria.

I will go and check to see if there are any eggs on the leaves today and report back. But, I really doubt this, at least in my yard. It may be because A. curassavica is so prevalent in the vicinity that the Monarchs know it is easier and preferable to go ahead and oviposit on the Milkweed. :)

I checked the multitudes of Plumeria today and nary an egg was found. Asked hubby if he ever saw an egg or even a Monarch THINKING about laying an egg on one of his Plumies and he said a resounding, "NO!" Of course, he did say he's seen Monarchs pupating on the Plumeria and landing on the Plumeria to sun themselves but never has he EVER seen one lay an egg nor has he spotted an egg.

I wonder why they were raising Monarchs in a greenhouse with Plumeria anyway unless it was to see if they could get the butterflies to pollinate the flowers.I mean, if there wasn't anything else around then perhaps the Monarch would oviposit onto the Plumeria or perhaps there were too many eggs already on the leaves of the available Milkweed. I mean, they've done studies where Monarch larvae will even eat CABBAGE leaves if Milkweed was unavailable, right?

Tdogmom, thanks for the responses! Interesting that your findings differ so greatly from the above study. I too wonder what else was in the greenhouse? I also wonder if the plumeria were close in proximity to the milkweed, and maybe the monarchs just thought it was milkweed (I had one laying eggs on Joe Pye weed earlier this summer)...? Curious, all of it!

Regardless, thanks for investigating! :)

Sandy

That's interesting. I have several plumerias and loads of asclepias, all in the same general vicinity but have never found monarch eggs on my plumerias. Actually I've never found anything laying eggs on or eating my plumies. I get plenty of monarchs laying eggs on my asclepias though.
Karyn

You know, I have done a spot of searching and I don't think that the writer is absolutely correct in stating that Plumeria and Asclepias are both part of the Apocynaceae 'family' and that Asclepiadaceae is now no longer the 'valid' family name.

If you check USDA records, it states that Apocynaceae is also synonymous with Asclepiadaceae, Periplocaceae, Plumeriaceae, Stapeliaceae, Vincaceae, and Willughbeiaceae. It appears it all depends upon whose classification system you use...as there are various 'systems' utilized within the botany world. I am no botanist so all I can do is go on what I read and I am happy to be corrected. But it does appear that from Kingdom to Order both Plumeria and Asclepias (Milkweed) share the same and change beginning at the Family and Genus levels.

Plumeria is actually how I learned about Monarchs.
My young daughter pointed out a monarch laying eggs on our plumeria .She wanted to bring in the eggs to raise .When I went online there was no mention of plumeria in their diet .Had a big rush on milkweed 101. Since we've planted milkweed we haven't found eggs on the plumeria.

Interesting...We keep searching the Plumies but have found nary an egg nor caterpillar eating any of the leaves...PUPATING on the Plumies? Yep. Eating the foliage? Nope.

Ok I've jinxed myself . I have to retract my last sentence.
We had a monarch this past week laying eggs .We have eggs on both our milkweed and plumeria.The eggs hatch but the cats dont last long if left on the plumeria.

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nolaflutterbys,
Do you have any pictures of actual eggs ON the Plumeria?

The photos you've requested .
It has been a few days so most have hatched. The photo in the middle and at the bottom are of a hatched egg .I placed a penny in the center photo to give you a size reference of both the leaf and egg.
I do have a milkweed garden about 10 feet away .
Eggs were left on both and I saw the butterfly deposit eggs on the plumeria.
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Thanks! Where are you residing in the U.S.? What is the orange stuff on the undersides of the Plumie leaves?

I'm in New Orleans.The orange spots are the beginning of a rust fungus.

I realize I'm 9 years late on this discussion, but I came to this page after doing an internet search on Monarchs and Plumeria while watching a monarch just now oviposit at least 14 eggs on our Plumeria that we have in pots on the patio deck. These pots are about 10 feet away from a patch of milkweed (several Asclepias tuberosa and several Asclepias currasavica), plants we grow specifically for Monarchs to oviposit. Other Monarchs have laid tons of eggs on them, but this particular Monarch used them only for feeding. It laid its eggs on the Plumeria.

What do the cats eat after they emerge? They crawl over to the milkweed?

It was mentioned in previous comments that the cats on plumeria die. Monarch cats straight out of the egg do not have the ability to wander far. They need to be on their hostplant.

I decided to look into this a little more closely. I surveyed the plants carefully. There were actually 45 eggs on them. I harvested one of the leafs with a single egg on it. Took pictures through a microscope, and left it in a glass of water to watch it develop. It hatched yesterday. I'll check it and the others to see how they're doing when I get home from work later today. However, as of this morning the egg that hatched had not died.

Definitely interesting. I know of one Monarch caterpillar as recent as 2 weeks ago which was on a family members' Plumeria eating the leaves for a few days until it disappeared. I believe it was at least an inch and a half, ready to pupate and left the plant to do so.

I am going to observe this over this summer. I have lots of milkweed, plumerias, and Monarchs. I will report back on my findings.

I am very late to this discussion. I live in South Mississippi and I have 3 monarch eggs on a plumeria leaf. I also have milkweed plants. They are not very big yet. They are just growing back from the winter. I just brought the plumeria out this weekend.

I can confirm that a monarch ovipositing on Plumeria is possible, and here is a photo to prove it, showing a shot of the oviposition along with one of the eggs. I have discovered several monarch eggs on my Plumeria.

I removed the leaves and put them on a milkweed. I successfully raised the caterpillars.

I live in Southern Cal and found two on my Plumeria

I have found several larvae on my plumeria plants, just chomping away on the leaves. I’ve moved those i find to my milkweed plants. How do I keep them away from the plumeria?

Every year the Monarch butterflies oviposit on my frangipani. The catipillars grow large, then eat all of the leaves of the Frangipani. They grow into robust Monarchs

Wow! News for me I will check my frangipani for monarch eggs.