3 hatched 3 waiting

[chanceychelsey]

Brought home 6 eggs from work (Toronto) on Wednesday. Three hatched overnight, the other three are still eggs.
Still haven't seen a monarch though.

And so the season begins!!! (One month ahead of last year)

Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ontario

[chanceychelsey]

I found 14 more last night at work, and overnight 5 hatched. Brought them all home this morning. Just like that, I now have 20!

Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ontario

[MrsZ]

Hi! I found eggs 2 weeks ago in my garden, the earliest ever! I took in 8 to school. All hatched and were doing marvelously. We have a long weekend (Victoria Day) here in Ontario, Canada, and I brought them home. Yesterday I noticed that a couple had stopped moving and were lying on their sides. This morning I had 5 of the 8 dead. I've never had that high a mortality rate ever! Since I watched the female lay the eggs, I'm wondering if she was infected somehow. I'm worried about the 3 left and how to talk to my class about it on Tuesday. Survival of the fittest I guess. Here I was hoping we'd have butterflies before we left for summer vacation on June 29. I have time to find more, though. Anyone else had trouble this year?

[Mona Miller]

We didn't have much of a winter so I'm guessing more disease survived. Many of my first eggs did not hatch and some of the caterpillars died. I just checked 3 of the adults that emerged. Some had OE. I don't think I will be trying to breed in my tent this year. But, I am planting lots of milkweed.

[MrsZ]

How do you check for OE?

[Mona Miller]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZjhVOcX5SI
Live Monarch Foundation - OE identification and Microscope

http://www.uga.edu/monarchparasites/whatisOE/index.html
"How to tell if butterflies are infected with OE
An infected pupa may develop dark spots or blotches two or three days before the butterfly emerges. These abnormal dark areas are parasite spores. Spores form on the eyes, antennae, wing veins, but mostly on the abdomen. You can see the spores through the outside layer of the pupa a day or two before pigments that color the butterfly normally darken the pupa. Before a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, pigments are laid down coloring the scales that cover the butterfly. This normal change in the color of the pupa is symmetrical. The color change of an infected monarch happens earlier and does not create a balanced pattern on the pupa."

http://www.evansonart.com/monarchdisease.html
Great photos and information.

http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/07/d ... spore.html
http://www.learnaboutmonarchs.com/learn ... spore.html