Very cool! Is this a migrating brood?

Woo Hoo, I know you've said that you don't usually get many Monarchs so this must be a treat for you! There seems to be a plentiful population this year and I'm finding them daily in my garden since the first of August. So lovely and graceful they are. Have fun and post pics when you can.

Awesome! I am so excited for you. It is a phenomenal year for Monarchs here in mid-America.

Enjoy those babies.

sandy

Thanks everybody!
I would assume they're headed back to Mexico, Jeff, and, while she was on the way, a female bearing eggs left some on my milkweed. I don't know much about monarch movements, though, since I don't get them too often.
It must, indeed, be a good year for monarchs!
Sherry

The monarchs that emerge in late summer, when the days are short, & the nights are cool, are not sexually mature. The adolescent monarchs migrate south to central Mexico, and over winter there. They finally make it to adulthood, and mate while on the way north, in the spring. At least, this is what the book says....So the female monarch who left all the eggs on your milkweed was likely a local adult, who spent her life within a few miles of your yard.

I have raised over 50 Monarchs this summer by just letting them eat and grow on milkweed in gallon pots. I had to keep running back to the organic nursery to get more milkweed.

I catch some of them when they are running off to go pupate and put them in a tall hibiscus. That way I can observe the chrysalides better. Here's a photo I took of one eclosing. I resized this large pic so I hope the link has refreshed to reflect the smaller size. I'm new here so give me time to learn. :-)

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PS My milkweed has recovered from being fully skeletonized a month ago and are ready for another brood. But the Monarchs have not been around like they usually are. I am in Central Florida. I don't know if they migrate or stay here year round. This is my first year butterfly gardening.

I don't think the milkweed bugs will harm your babies. At least they seem to co-exist peacefully in the house. They just affect the health of the plant, so, we don't really want them.

I would think there are still monarchs breeding down there. The only thing is that A. curassavica is changing the behavior of migrating monarchs (if I read the abstract correctly). However, I think this is probably just where curassavica stays year round. I assume it dies where you are at some point? A. curassavica does not go into senescence like the native florida milkweeds. This has induced floridian monarchs to continue breeding all year long. Monarchs that migrate south to these areas break diapause and breed with the resident monarchs. But like I said, I wouldn't think this is the issue in Mississippi at this time of year. We still have A. syriaca and A. incarnata, and others doing fine in Ohio now.

Cheers,
Elisabeth

Amy Knight1 and Lincoln P. Brower2

(1) Florida Natural Areas Inventory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32303, USA
(2) Department of Biology, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA 24595, USA

Received: 2 March 2009 Revised: 5 June 2009 Accepted: 12 June 2009 Published online: 7 July 2009

Abstract In Florida, the eastern North American population of the monarch butterfly exhibits geographic variability in population structure and dynamics. This includes the occurrence of migrants throughout the peninsula during the autumnal migration, occasional overwintering clusters that form along the Gulf Coast, remigrants from Mexico that breed in north-central Florida during the spring, and what have been assumed to be year-round, resident breeding populations in southern Florida. The work reported here focused on two monarch populations west of Miami and addressed four questions: Are there permanent resident populations of monarchs in southern Florida? Do these breed continuously throughout the year? Do they receive northern monarchs moving south during the autumn migration? Do they receive overwintered monarchs returning via Cuba or the Yucatan during the spring remigration from the Mexican overwintering area? Monthly collections and counts of spermatophores in the bursa copulatrices of females established that a resident population of continuously breeding monarchs exists year-round in southern Florida. It was determined through cardenolide fingerprinting that most of the butterflies had bred on the local southern Florida milkweed species, Asclepias curassavica. During the autumn migration period, however, some monarchs had fed on the northern milkweed, Asclepias syriaca. It appears that instead of migrating to Mexico, these individuals travel south through peninsular Florida, break diapause, mate with and become incorporated into the resident breeding populations. None of the monarchs captured in spring had the A. syriaca cardenolide fingerprint, which is evidence against the southern Florida populations receiving overwintered remigrants from Cuba, Central America or Mexico.

Yippee, MissSherry! I get to feel your excitement because I just found two late instar cats the other day. I had given up hope of monarch cats this year. They are the only two so far that I have found this year.

Yes, Elisabeth, we have several light freezes plus maybe one hard freeze (low 20's) each winter, and that's enough to freeze A. curassavica, root and all - it doesn't come back from the root the next year, but the seeds must overwinter, because volunteers come up each spring.
I've only heard of a year round population in south Florida.
Sherry

I made some pictures of the cats around noon, and none of them were any good, blurry and/or too dark. The cats are all on the underside of the leaves, and when I take the picture from that side, it's so shady the pictures don't turn out. I was going to go back and try again, but it started raining, so I kept on cleaning cages. I'll try again tomorrow.
Sherry

Elisabeth:

Monarchs that migrate south to these areas break diapause and breed with the resident monarchs.

That's a significant finding, in that the eastern migrating population has kept its OE incidence much lower than the Floridian population. I wonder whether the interbreeding will change that?

Jeff

I brought in about a dozen little monarch cats, but there are still many more hatchlings out there on my one big A. curassavica plant. Why do monarchs always lay too many eggs? I found two dead ones, and there was a stinkbug nearby, so I imagine that's what happened to them.
Now I'm worrying about how I'm going to feed all these cats. I might wind up feeding them honeyvine - I've been pulling up a lot of it, hopefully not too much!
I got this picture of one of them before I brought them in -
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Sherry

Honeyvine?? I thought monarch cats ate and only ate milkweed. Is this something new?

It's a vine in the milkweed family - the scientific name is Cynanchum laeve. I got monarch eggs/cats on mine once before, but they really don't like it much. I only use it when I'm out of everything else.
Sherry

Congrats Sherry
on your Monarch-babies...
I had a lil batch of MW planted here this year but something ate it and I know it was no Monarchs, so maybe there is a next time for me next year... I miss them so much, but I am grateful of what I am finding up here.. :)
Butterfly-Greetings
Susanne(SUE)

On account of my eye, I can't raise the monarch cats, so I got my husband to take the tile they were on and set it at the base of the milkweed plant. I checked on them this afternoon, and they all left the tile and are all over the plant - I can't believe how much they've grown in such a short time!! They grow even faster than pipevine swallowtails!
I've still got two caterpillars left to raise - a tiger swallowtail and a red-spotted purple, but this afternoon I brought them enough cherry from a tree near the house to feed them to pupation, no big deal. I think the RSP will be in the "J" at any time.
I hope a lot of the monarchs make it - so far so good! I watered the MW, which should help keep it making new growth.
Sherry

I just went out with my wrap around sunglasses over my regular glasses. The growth rate of the monarchs is nothing short of phenomenal on A. curassavica! Most of them look to be on their 4th instar already - they'll probably be pupating tomorrow! I got this picture of these three that appear to be molting -
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Sherry

It must be a good year for monarchs because I already have 25+ in a cage and STILL keep finding more. And I KNOW I don't have enough food to feed them. There's no way They've eaten my entire milkweed section and there's only a few plants left. I'm going to have to search the nearby river banks for some milkweed or I'm gonna have alot of hungry cats. And I keep telling myself. Just leave some in the garden and let nature take its course buttttt I never leave any. lol.

Yes, if I get monarchs at all, then it's a good monarch year, so for those of you who normally get them, I can see how you're overrun with cats! It's been hard for me to leave these outside, too, but I have to - I'm leaving the pipevine swallowtail hatchlings outside, also, but then they're one caterpillar that rarely ever gets eaten by predators. If my eye continues to improve, I'll probably start bringing the pipevines in soon, and maybe even the biggest monarchs just in time to pupate. The monarchs have really done a number on that big plant - next year, I need to start several from seed in early spring, so I'll have more than one plant.
Sherry

I went back out and met my Mama monarch -
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Sherry

Sherry,

What happened to your eyes? Last weekend I got milkweed sap in one of my eyes. I was sweating and wiped my face with my shirt. Apparently there was sap on it. Took me a couple of days to get my sight back. I hope your vision is ok. Looks like you are enjoying your Monarchs and Pipevines.

Sandy

I broke out in a big sweat working in my garden on Labor Day/Monday and rubbed my eyes, too, Sandy. I had brought in one extra monarch caterpillar, but I was very careful not to let any milk get on anything. The eye doctor showed me the pictures of my eye, and I apparently dislodged the scar tissue in my eye. In December, 2007, a stick somehow got under my glasses on a path in the woods and this stick poked me in the eye right over the pupil. The doctor says that this type scar tissue doesn't "seat" well and tends to come undone. I was in horrible pain, couldn't stand any light, but I'm amazed at how quickly I'm recovering. The doctor said if it happens again, I should have a procedure done where he completely anesthetizes your eye and then pokes little things in your cornea. It sounds so horrible, I think I'll need general anesthesia for that! It supposedly causes the scar tissue to adhere to the cornea -
I hope it doesn't happen again. I don't think MW milk was the cause - the doctor thought my rubbing probably did it - though I suppose it could have been.
By the way, I saw this female monarch start to lay an egg on the underside of a MW leaf, and she touched on a caterpillar! - 'don't know if she actually laid the egg on the cat or not!
Sherry

The monarch cats have eaten the entire plant down to the nubs, so I started moving less-than-full-grown cats to the honeyvine yesterday. I left the biggest ones on the A. curassavica, because they were being still like they were about to pupate. The honeyvine has grown in with the Passiflora biflora, which the gulf frits are starting to lay eggs on, because the other passis are depleted. I got this picture - you can see two GFs and two monarchs on this section of the fence. Those green balls are the unripe oranges on my orange tree -
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Sherry

These monarchs raised themselves outside, so I looked for chrysalides, but couldn't find any. The other day, a butterfly flew off, like I'd accidentally disturbed it, and it flew weakly like a newly emerged monarch, but it hid, and I couldn't find it again, so I'm not sure what it was.
Today I was walking the dogs, and when I came to the area right across from the honeyvine, I saw a chrysalis on a little redbay - I guess it stood out, because it wasn't green.
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Then I came back a few hours later and found this big, beautiful boy!
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Sherry