Thank you for your Vanessa migration reports

[Royce J. Bitzer]

Dear Leps-L members,

A belated thank you to everyone who sent reports of the Vanessa sp.
migrations during the past month or so, either in response to my earlier
(April 24) request for Red Admiral migration observations, or as posts of
either Red Admiral or Painted Lady observations.  Your observations of both
migrations should show some very interesting patterns of how each one
proceeded (once I sort through all the info). 

Now it seems that a second Red Admiral migration is now underway in the
eastern U.S.  From the posts I've read so far, it started several weeks
later than the midwestern migration.  Even the first springtime sightings
of Red Admirals in the eastern U.S. seem to be running several weeks later
than they were in the midwest at similar latitudes.  What's happening here?
 It would be interesting to find out....Therefore, I would like to repost
my request for migration observations below.  First springtime sightings
would also be useful to me.

At 10:42 AM 04/25/2001 -0500, I wrote:
>
>....  I would appreciate knowing if you have seen (or will see) migrating
red admirals passing through your area.  Please include your full name, the
location from which you observed (nearest town or landmark would be OK),
the date or dates when you see red admirals passing through your area, and
the direction toward which they seem to be moving.  A rough estimate of how
frequently they are passing through would also be useful.

>Also note the weather conditions (example, wind was
south-southwesterly at 10-15 mph, under mostly sunny skies and temperatures
in the mid- to upper 60s).

>If you see either Painted or American Ladies moving either with the red
admirals or on their own, please report them as well.  During April's
midwestern migration, several observers in different locations reported a
relatively small number of American Ladies flying with the Red Admirals
during the first few days of the migration.  
>
>If you would like to collect and report more detailed data, such as precise
>flight headings, hourly counts during a particular time period each day, or
>flight speed, I have instructions on the web page
>
>http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/observe1.html
>
>All participants will be recognized in the acknowledgements of any journal
>articles in which these data might be published.  If you provide more
>detailed observations and would then like to be considered as a co-author
>on any publications, please let me know. 
>
>Thank you for your time and interest.
>
>
>Royce J. Bitzer
>mariposa at iastate.edu
>   
>Dept. of Entomology    
>113A Insectary          
>Iowa State University  
>Ames, Iowa  50011       
>Phone: (515) 294-8663
>                        
>http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/homepage.html
>
>The Red Admiral and Painted Lady Website
>A web site to encourage and coordinate
>field studies of territorial behavior
>and migration of Vanessa butterflies                


 
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