Drought

[blazing star]

I was wondering how this extensive drought will affect migrating monarchs that arrive at sites without nectar. My 5 acre restoration is all dormant (hopefully not dead). Even the pioneer species (monarch, ratibida) that have had a foot hold for years have shriveled to brown.

It seems the dust bowl was just as extensive with drought impact and I couldn't help but wonder how the Monarchs survived this event. Is there then the ability to correlate that the monarchs will be able to sustain themselves on the navigation South during this drought impact? Is there any data concerning population numbers during this time?

[Mona Miller]

The dust bowl was in the 1930s. Dr. Urquhart has some data in his book "The Monarch Butterfly", but it did not cover that period, too early. Dr. Urquhart didn't start surveying Monarchs until the mid 1940s.

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollin ... Brower.pdf
UNDERSTANDING AND MISUNDERSTANDING THE MIGRAnON OF THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY (NYMPHALIDAE) IN NORTH AMERICA: 1857-1995
LINCOLN P. BROWER

[Paul Cherubini]

Is there then the ability to correlate that the monarchs will be able to sustain themselves on the navigation South during this drought impact?

Do you remember all the hoopla about the Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas drought last summer and fall? And all the newspaper articles that speculated the monarchs might suffer great nutritional stress or even death due to the dearth of flower nectar and water while migrating through "1000 miles of hell?"

I visited southwestern Texas on Oct. 4 right in the middle of the "hellzone". Far from suffering, I found the monarchs weren't hardly even interested in the available flower nectar and water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xUDgTOaIQM

None of that surprized me because here in the western USA, the monarchs migrate across the deserts every year without a problem. They even overwinter in the desert.