Oviposting monarch in Westborough

[Nancy E. Burke]

Yesterday (8/11), about 3pm, I went behind my Westborough house to release my first monarch of the season (a male) and found activity in the garden.  There was a black swallowtail nectaring on buddleia, and a monarch also doing so.  As I observed my male monarch (release #1 for the year), only a few hours old, just sitting in the bush, the other monarch took off and started depositing eggs on the milkweed in that area.  I later collected five eggs that I hope to be part of the migration generation.

Temperature was in the 80’s.

 

I released monarch #2 today, also a male.  He was much more interested in taking off.  There will be many more releases over the weekend, as I had a cohort that went into chrysalis in short order.

 

Both males released were tested OE negative.  No spores on the samples.

 

Nan