Taggers Busy in Eastern Arizona Right Now

[Paul Cherubini]

Southwest Monarch Study volunteers have been busy tagging monarchs the past several weeks. Some recent examples:

Joe Billings tagged 48 monarchs in one day (July 25):
http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/4ALC/jna.jpg

Gail Morris tagged 9 monarchs and saw 4 others on July 30:
http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/4ALC/jnd.jpg

Adriane Grimaldi tagged 4 monarchs on Aug. 4 and saw 3 monarch caterpillars:
http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/4ALC/jnb.jpg

The map I used in these photos was lifted from the Journey North website to emphasize the fact that the Journey North map is inaccurate (it suggests monarchs don't occur or breed in eastern Arizona).

[Mona Miller]

Did you notice that the map said "primary" breeding and overwintering? It did not say that Monarchs do not occur in Arizona.

[Paul Cherubini]

The Journey North map doesn't display the primary breeding areas accurately either. Example: it shows no breeding in northwestern Mexico, eastern Arizona or the Rocky Mountain Areas even though summer breeding occurs in those areas reliably every year (e.g. 1,400 wild caught monarchs were tagged in eastern Arizona last year). But it does show central Alberta as a primary breeding area even though monarchs don't occur there reliably every year.

I find it puzzling why Journey North would not make a map based on actual occurrence records like this: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1892