Monarch migration

[Paul Cherubini]

Robert Kriegel wrote:

> I spent most of last week in Michigan's Upper Peninsula sampling. 
> On Friday (8/17) I observed 50-100 fresh Danaus pleixppus 
> (Monarch) adults at an old field in Mackinac County. 

Yes, numerous reports on the dplex-list indicate this is a 
very high population year for the monarch butterfly in the
upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.  

For example, the following report from northeast Iowa came
in today from an experienced and excited observer. Ironically,
northeast Iowa has a huge acreage of Bt corn and Roundup
Ready Soybeans!

"If the migration follows the clustering by one week 
as it did last year, it is time to get ready for a major migration 
as everyone I have talked to here says the groups they are seeing 
are much larger that in the past years.  We thought that getting 
1000 tags this year was a stretch, but as it turns out, we should 
be able to get the last one on tonight!   We've never seen monarchs 
like this!"

 Jim Langhus
 Monona, IA  52159
(Northeast Iowa)

Despite the high monarch population, we can be almost certain 
that doom and gloom "monarchs are facing dire threats" 
type articles will soon appear in major newspapers across North 
America.  It's been a Sept//Oct tradition since about 1988 when
Dr. Lincoln Brower first began predicting the monarch migration 
could collapse by the year 2000.

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.

 
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