Here's some tigers. We had more of them this year than I've ever seen. The dark one is a female in the dark phase, Krobra correctly IDed this one for me.

gardenfish said:Thanks! I should know the names of the parts of the plants, shame on me!

Hey, that's what I call it

joannakat said:

Oh, that's so beautiful! Where are you?

I am in Illinois, right along their migration path. 👍🏻

Well, I used to be on the migration path, but the path has either moved more to the east or west of us. I used to get thousands a day through here back in the 90s. We are now down to perhaps dozens per day. And the population is down, according to the most recent counts.

gardenfish said:Well, I used to be on the migration path, but the path has either moved more to the east or west of us. I used to get thousands a day through here back in the 90s. We are now down to perhaps dozens per day. And the population is down, according to the most recent counts.

Wow, that still sounds like some kind of heaven.

My yellow lantana plants have started to come out of dormancy.

Is that early, Eric, or about right for your area?

And the population is down, according to the most recent counts.

Their population has been on a steady decline since 1994.

(Source: monarchwatch.org)

SassyBloomer said:

Their population has been on a steady decline since 1994.

(Source: monarchwatch.org)

joannakat said:

Indeed. 1994 sticks out so much for me because that was the year my house (and the surrounding development) was built. Coincidence? I don't think so.😔

I think the destruction of so much wild milkweed plays a huge part in the population decline. I used to see it around here everywhere, from the sides of the roads and in the fields. Not any more.

And Illinois is largely responsible.

When the farmers decided gmo'd soybeans was their new cash cow, the monarchs got screwed. 😡

Other factors include land development and climate change.

Now Illinois has put several initiatives in place to increase the monarch population. That's wonderful, but we still need to be concerned with the increasing human population. Between the monarch initiatives and human overpopulation, it'll cancel each other out. You may never see monarchs by "the thousands" ever again.

Sassybloomer you're right. The sad fact is that all the efforts made all over the country aren't a drop in the bucket to how much milkweed really needs to be planted. We are losing ground. I recently wrote an article for my Master Gardener newsletter outlining these particular problems, and quoted a expert on environmental restoration who said our all efforts to replant and replace the native milkweed are too little and too late.

😥😥😥

Butterflies cup their wings to produce tiny jets to evade predators

https://www.lunduniversity.lu....

Now, how cool is that! I love these kinds of scientific stories.

A few butterfly photos to share

Emergence (don't know the species)


Eastern Tiger Swallowtail


Atlas Moth


Isabella

Stunning photos.