Breeders/Gardeners

[Kathy Reinertsen]

Good afternoon all,
The Miami Blue Project and Crew has shown that breeders, collectors, and other
lepidopterist can put their animosity aside and work together with the
scientific community to save a little blue butterfly. Let's take this one step
further, and find other ways that breeders can work hand and hand with the
scientific and research community. Two ways that you can help to accomplish this
goal: 1) help the Miami Blue Crew to acquire balloon vine seeds. The Miami Blue
Crew will need a lot of seed to reach all the goals that they have set to save
the little butterfly. If you have seeds to donate please contact Bob, Anne,
Jose, Phyllis or Ed. ( I would like to trade Lupinus texensis "Texas Maroon
Bluebonnet" for Cardiospermum halicacabum "Balloon Vine" ) 2) You can
participate in the IBBA Tagging Program.
The IBBA  has started a pilot tagging program sponsored and designed
independently without outside funding by the IBBA.  The program is designed as a
voluntary pilot program and will be open to all butterfly breeders.  We will
collect credible, raw, basic data, but will not analyze it. Ed and Kathy
Reinertsen will be the coordinators of this program, under the direction of the
IBBA Board of Directors, and will publish reported data as it is received at
w.butterflybreeders.org.  Data collected from the recorded tags will aid
scientist and researchers by identifying captive bred Monarchs, monitor the
movement, and longevity of the captive bred Monarchs during non migratory
months. The tagging program activities will end on August 1, 2002.  As per Dr.
Chip Taylor's schedule, by ending the tagging before August 15 above 42 degrees
(middle Iowa) or September 5 at 39 degrees (Lawrence, KS) .The IBBA's program is
in partnership with the scientific community and the USDA. Why is the IBBA doing
this?  Researchers have voiced concerns that release of captive bred Monarchs
could interfere with the counts of naturally occurring butterflies in population
dynamics studies. Researchers are also interested in studies of non migratory
populations This program will help provide data on the dispersion of captive
bred Monarchs. The IBBA feels that it is important to cooperate and participate
as partners with the research community and the USDA. In order for the program
to produce valid and useful information, it is important that a large number of
breeders participate.  Whether you are a member of the IBBA, an independent
commercial breeder, or a hobbyist, we are encouraging you to participate in
order to provide a large enough sampling to have relevancy. The New IBBA round
tag will have the same size, (9 mm or .350") lamination, face stock, adhesive,
and tooling as the latest Monarch Watch tag.  Changes in the IBBA tag are:
Single sequentially numbered labels with a six digit tracking number.  Yellow
with black lettering that will read:  IBBA
  Please call
1-866-202-9844
  A000001
We made the decision to use a toll free phone number to have the best recovery
sampling for valid results.  Yellow tags were chosen to distinguish from the
other tagging programs that are tagging wild Monarchs.   The IBBA does not want
to interfere with the counts of the wild butterflies in population dynamics
studies.  The new tag will make it easy to provide data on the movements of
captive bred Monarchs and aid in studies of non migratory Monarchs. You would
place the IBBA tag in the same manner as other tags, over the discal cell on the
underside on the hind wing.  This method is less harmful to the butterfly and
the rate of tag recovery is higher than for Monarchs tagged on the wing margins.
The tags will be made available at a cost of $5.00 per 100 tags.  Kathy and I as
coordinators of this program are doing this without payment and have no
financial interest in the release industry.  We will not be raising butterflies
this season so as not to jeopardize the credibility of the data collected. To
order your tags, we would encourage you to plan ahead and send your check made
payable to the IBBA with your request to: The IBBA c/o Kathy Reinertsen
                                                                          1617
Wisteria Way

Richardson, Texas  75080
This will help keep the cost down.  We will batch checks and send them to the
IBBA treasurer after making copies. With your order Kathy and I will assign you
a four digit identification number to address the confidentiality / privacy
issues and send it to you with your tags, data sheets, and instructions. Please
complete the data sheets as soon as possible and fax them to 972-680-0023 so
that we will have the history of the reported Monarch. This program is about
collecting credible data.  There are many researchers that will use this raw
basic data if they know that it is credible.  The last thing we want is to have
the tagging program shot down on the basis of lack of documentation.The total
number of Monarchs that any and all breeders sell and the amount of tags
purchased by the IBBA will be considered a question that will not be answered.
The only information posted on the IBBA web site would be reported Monarchs.
This can be done without jeopardizing the credibility of the data collected.  We
will ask for the reported butterfly to be sent if possible to Kathy and I for
only one reason, that is to mount the Monarch and present the butterfly as
rewards for outstanding achievements with this tagging program.  Because this is
a non migratory tagging program, payment will not be made for recovered Monarchs
for obvious reasons. A lot of people have unselfishly worked very hard to put
all of this together and it has the potential to generate a great deal of basic
data for the scientific community to analyze.  The IBBA Board of Directors is
excited about this program and realizes that this will be a new frontier for the
IBBA.  Many questions remain unanswered about Monarch populations.  We need data
to answer these questions and we need your help!  Only through your
participation will we be able to obtain sufficient reports and observations to
answer these questions.
Thank You,
Ed Reinertsen
IBBA Tagging Program Coordinator

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