Tomorrow, September 22, at 10:29pm EDT, we will welcome Autumn! With the erratic weather of the past week it seems like we are already there. We certainly hope our butterflies have made it successfully across Lake Ontario. Friday marked the final release of our last Monarch. We wished her a safe journey.
Last week, I was informed through our Monarch Teacher Network that a Monarch with tag letters TAZ was seen roosting along the shores of Lake Ontario along with hundreds of others readying themselves for their biggest obstacle of their journey. This is promising news considering the batch of tags I was issued this year are TAZ tags! We now will wait patiently until Spring to see if any of our Monarchs were located in the overwintering grounds of Mexico. Keep your fingers crossed!
In the next two weeks we will be preparing the materials we need to participate in the Symbolic Migration project hosted by Journey North. You can check out their website here: Journey North - Citizen Science. This week will also be sending the data from our citizen science project on Monarch protozoan parasites to the University of Georgia.
Monarchs across the continent are subject to a parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). It is a protozoan parasite that infects Monarch and Queen butterflies. OE isn’t an animal or a plant, but a protozoan. Protozoans are single celled organisms that have many of the same characteristics as animals. We have tested approximately 30 butterflies in the last 3 weeks and are looking forward to hearing from the scientists in Georgia on the health of our Monarchs. We are part of a continent-wide science experiment! You can find more information here:Project Monarch Health
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| A migratory butterfly I had in quarantine due to a malformed & oozing chrysalis. He emerged perfectly and is on his way to Mexico! Can you see the distinctive black scent patches on his hind wings, close to his abdomen? Only males have those pheromone patches - they need to smell good to find a girlfriend! |
