FW: At El Rosario about half of the colony is now on the ground.. .

Mike Quinn Mike.Quinn at tpwd.state.tx.us
Fri Jan 18 18:25:06 EST 2002


Bad news from Michoacan... Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Chip Taylor [mailto:chip at KU.EDU] 
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 3:43 PM
To: dplex-l at UKANS.EDU
Subject: NEWS FROM DAVE KUST


As I mentioned yesterday, Dave Kust's email from Zitacuaro seemed to 
be cut off. Indeed it was and Dave just called to pass on more 
information.

These are notes from the phone call. Unfortunately,  there wasn't 
enough time to discuss all the details.

At El Rosario about half of the colony is now on the ground and not 
moving and apparently dead. In many places on the trails the dead 
and/or dying butterflies are 10 layers deep. Evidently this  has been 
the case since Monday the day after low nighttime temperatures in the 
mid 20's or lower.

The conditions at El Rosario appear to be more serious than at 
Chincua where the majority of the butterflies on the ground appeared 
to be flying and climbing back up into the shrubs.

There were reportedly 10 cm of snow at Chincua and roughly 15 cm at 
El Rosario. However, it is seldom the snow that kills the monarchs 
but rather the length of the periods where the temperatures drop to 
or below 26 degrees F.

Lincoln Brower will be in El Rosario next week and hopefully he can 
give us an assessment of the situation when he returns.

Chip
-- 

Monarch Watch
e: monarch at ku.edu
w: http://www.MonarchWatch.org/
Dplex-L: send message "info Dplex-L" to Listproc at ukans.edu
p: 1 (888) TAGGING (toll-free!) -or- 1 (785) 864 4441
f: 1 (785) 864 5321
usps: University of Kansas, Entomology Program, 1200 Sunnyside 
Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-7534 

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl 
 


More information about the Leps-l mailing list