Marking Monarchs

[Mona Miller]

I went to staples today and bought a set of ultra fine tipped colored markers. I'm marking my reared Monarchs with my latitude and longitude. Maybe someone will find them and figure out what I am doing. Tiny marks won't hurt the Monarch--make sure the wings are dry. They can still fly, mate, etc.

For example, my latitude and longitude rounded is 39°-77' this location comes up as Reston, Virginia (close enough).

http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html
You can look up your latitude and longitude above.

This will also help Tyler (Canadian Ph.D.) student, who's currently collecting milkweed and monarchs for a study, know where they came from if he happens to net them.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/site ... vement.pdf
Spring re-colonization patterns of Monarch Butterflies in North America: volunteers needed

I also was able to see that one of my labeled Monarchs stayed around--a male of course. All the females have gone off somewhere, I hope to be fruitful and multiply.

[Paul Cherubini]

This will also help Tyler (Canadian Ph.D.) student, who's currently collecting milkweed and monarchs for a study, know where they came from if he happens to net them.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/site ... vement.pdf
Spring re-colonization patterns of Monarch Butterflies in North America: volunteers needed

There's only a remote chance Tyler or any other scientists would see, let alone catch one of your released monarchs. Professor Bruce Walsh has made this point before in his posts about "releases confusing studies". See: http://www.butterfliz.com/butterflyreleases.htm where Bruce wrote:

"First, releases are likely to be such a very small proportion of the population as to not likely be sampled in any random sample of the population used to examine local structure."

"In summary, unless the released material makes up a significant fraction of the local breeding population (at least over 1 percent and likely over 5 percent), it is unlikely to be obtained in a random population sample."

[Mona Miller]

You are so pessimistic. But, also wrong again and again.

[Wyvern]

I went to staples today and bought a set of ultra fine tipped colored markers. I'm marking my reared Monarchs with my latitude and longitude. Maybe someone will find them and figure out what I am doing. Tiny marks won't hurt the Monarch--make sure the wings are dry. They can still fly, mate, etc.

Are you applying small white stickers with the information written in sharpie or are you actually writing on the butterfly itself?

[Mona Miller]

Yes, actually writing on wings. When dry the wing is like a finger nail.

Wait until the wings dry. I'm using a plastic card to support wings (place that between the wings) and then a soft chip clip to hold the wings in place. Carefully, write the numbers. I'm putting latitude in the distal cell and the longitude below that. I'm doing this slowly and carefully. I'll have to take some pictures of the process.

I promised to net butterflies for the study that Tyler is doing, but I don't want to net butterflies that I have just released. Unfortunately, I've only seen 5 wild butterflies this year and they are faster than I am--so far, I haven't netted any.

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/blog ... arch-study
Volunteers needed for Monarch study
"Tyler Flockhart, a PhD student at the University of Guelph, is soliciting volunteers for two projects. Tyler studies the population dynamics of monarch butterflies. This coming summer he will be studying the movement of monarchs throughout the breeding season at sites across eastern North America.

The first project looks at how monarchs re-colonize the breeding range in the spring. The second project focuses on movement throughout the entire breeding season and early fall. Information from these projects will be used in population models to determine how monarch populations grow during the breeding season. Ultimately, this is one of the key pieces of information needed to guide conservation planning for monarchs.

Volunteers will receive sampling instructions, storage envelopes, and datasheets to record their information. Please contact Tyler at dflockha@uoguelph.ca or 519-265-7833 if you are interesting in volunteering or have further questions about these projects."

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/site ... vement.pdf
Spring re-colonization patterns of Monarch Butterflies in North America: volunteers needed

[Mona Miller]

Fine/Ultra Fine Permanent Marker, plastic card, and clip


Place card between wings and use clip to secure both wings near the end of the card


Carefully mark butterfly (do not press too hard or you will tear the wing). Round your numbers to shorten them. I checked my numbers and they end up being Reston, Virginia. I'm on the border of that area.

[Paul Cherubini]

The citizen recapture rate of a monarch marked with a Monarch Watch tag is around 1 in 500 - 1,000? So imagine how low the recapture rate would be of a monarch marked with just latitude and longitude and no telephone number or return address.

Why not tag these monarchs with a Monarch Watch tag plus write on them with a Sharpie?

[Mona Miller]

Fine/Ultra Fine Permanent Marker, plastic card, and clip


Place card between wings and use clip to secure both wings near the end of the card


Carefully mark butterfly (do not press too hard or you will tear the wing). Round your numbers to shorten them. I checked my numbers and they end up being Reston, Virginia. I'm on the border of that area.

http://s964.photobucket.com/albums/ae12 ... 0Monarchs/
This is the website for the pictures. I don't know what happened to them. The pictures are still on the website.