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Contents:

1) Welcome!

2) Prospects for the Fall Migration

3) 2002 Tagging Kits

4) Sixth Annual Festival of Butterflies

5) Summer Fun at Gulliver's Gift Shop

6) Monarch Rearing Kits

7) Hairpencils

8) 2001 Season Summary

9) How to Unsubscribe from this Update

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1) Welcome to Monarch Watch's Update List!

You are receiving this email because you have provided Monarch Watch with your email address at some point and expressed interest in receiving updates from us. If you do not wish to receive these periodic (probably monthly) email updates or feel that you were subscribed in error, please see the unsubscribe information at the end of this message.

Have you somehow missed (or misplaced ;-) an update? Now you can find all of the updates archived online at

http://www.MonarchWatch.org/update

If you know someone that you think might be interested in receiving these email updates from Monarch Watch with monarch news, special announcements, tips on raising monarchs in your classroom, monarch tagging information and a whole lot more, please send them on over to

http://www.MonarchWatch.org/signup

to join our new Monarch-Watch-Update email list - it's easy!

Monarch Watch (http://www.MonarchWatch.org) is a not-for-profit educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas. We run a Monarch tagging program and offer Monarch Rearing Kits, Monarch Tagging Kits, and other educational/promotional materials that allow you to actively experience the monarch life cycle and its spectacular fall migration.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us anytime!

Your friends at Monarch Watch
http://www.MonarchWatch.org
monarch@ku.edu

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2) Prospects for the Fall Migration

by Chip Taylor

Full recovery of the monarch population from the extreme mortality associated with the winter storm of January 2002 will take more than one year. Although good numbers of monarchs returned in the spring, relatively poor production of first generation offspring in Texas looks like it will result in a smaller fall population than last year, a migration that resulted in 9.35 hectares of overwintering monarchs. Will it be as low as 2000, which produced an overwintering population of only 2.83 hectares? I don’t think so. I’ll go out on a limb, much earlier than I usually do, and will predict that the population this winter will be about 5 hectares. Although this is lower than the nine year average of 9.6 hectares, it is still a good number of butterflies.

What will this mean for tagging? Actually, it may mean very little. More Monarchs were tagged in 1998 (65-80,000) than in 1999 (63-74,000), yet the population was almost twice as large in 1999. In 2000, with the lowest number of migrants we’ve seen to date, our participants tagged 63-79,000 monarchs. Tagging success seems to be more dependent on the weather conditions, and the determination of the participants at the time the Monarchs are moving through a region, rather than on the absolute number of butterflies. Let's hope for a good migration and enjoy the tagging - it’s lots of fun. Your participation in this program is important; the data we obtain with your assistance contributes to our overall understanding of the monarch population.

A more complete article on the status of the monarch population appears in the 2002 Premigration Newsletter which is being mailed to all Monarch Watch members over the next couple of weeks; it will also be available online soon thereafter.

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3) 2002 Tagging Kits

We will begin shipping out Tagging Kits this week so if you have already ordered a 2002 Membership and wanted tags you should receive them within the next couple of weeks. If you aren't a 2002 Member yet, what are you waiting for? ;-) We still have tags available, but they are going fast and we anticipate running out of tags again this year as we have during the last two seasons. Head on over "Gulliver's Gift Shop" at

http://Shop.MonarchWatch.org

or give our ordering division (at Home Earth) a call at 800-780-9986 and become a Monarch Watch Member today!

Data Sheets are included in the Tagging Kit and you can also download a PDF version at

http://www.MonarchWatch.org/download/pdf/02data.pdf

Happy Tagging!

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4) Sixth Annual Festival of Butterflies

Powell Gardens (30 miles east of Kansas City in Kingsville, MO) will expand its annual Festival of Butterflies to two weekends this year to accommodate its growing popularity with area visitors. Now in its sixth year, the festival will run from 9 am to 6 pm August 16-18 and August 23-25. In 2001, the festival drew more than 20,000 people over a four-day period. In 2002, the free flight exhibit of hundreds of live butterflies in the Martha Jane Phillips Starr Butterfly Conservatory will remain the festival’s centerpiece.

Monarch Watch will be there with lots of monarchs for tagging demonstrations, monarch presentations and a whole lot more. So if you're in the neighborhood, come on out and stop by to say "hi" - we'd love to see you there!

For more information or directions please visit http://www.PowellGardens.org or call them at 816-697-2600.

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5) Summer Fun at Gulliver's Gift Shop

Lots of families will be hitting the road this month and we all know how long a trip can be if the kids don’t have something to keep them occupied. Before you jump in the car, pick up something from the Kids aisle of Gulliver’s Gift Shop!

Check out our Coloring Books section where your young artist can find books on butterflies, birds, dinosaurs, whales and more.

In the Kids Activity Book aisle you can find games, books, and other fun things that will engage children of all ages. The ‘National Geographic Travel & Adventure Journal’ is a great way to help your kids build a record of their trips and adventures. We have many of the ‘One Small Square’ activity kits that are full of fun games and puzzles subjects ranging from rainforests to deserts. You will also find lots of connect the dots and maze books that will keep the kids entertained for hours.

We also have board games like ‘Good Heavens! : The Astronomy Game’ and ‘The Bug Game: Insects and Other Backyard Creatures’. And of course you can get our own ‘Monarch Life’ board game that teaches youngsters ages 6+ all about the life cycle and migration of the monarch butterfly.

So before you take the family on that last road trip, stop at Gulliver’s Gift Shop and pick up something to help the kids make the most of your travel time or a rainy day. Remember, each purchase you make at Gulliver’s Gift Shop helps support Monarch Watch’s efforts in education and research.

http://Shop.MonarchWatch.org

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6) Monarch Rearing Kits

Order your fall rearing kits now! If you are planning on purchasing a rearing kit to be shipped during late August or early September, order early! We are only able to take a set number of orders each week and we are quickly filling up. The week of September 2 is no longer available and the week of August 26 only has a few spots left. Order early to get the week you want!

As weeks fill up we will update the status of Rearing Kit availability online at

http://www.MonarchWatch.org/rear/status.html

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7) Hairpencils

There are many mysteries concerning monarchs. One of these involves chemical communication, or perhaps the lack of it. Monarchs have the alar glands (two black "pouches" on a male's wings) and hairpencils seen in other Danaines, but they appear to have lost the pheromones and the behavior associated with their use in courtship. Monarchs are rarely seen extending their hairpencils either prior to or during courtship. The pouches appear to contain no pheromones nor are there any to be found on the hairpencils themselves. In fact, mating does not appear to involve any chemical communication at all.

Since monarchs seldom extend their hairpencils, most monarch observers have never seen this structure. The hairpencils are telescoping tubes, or sheaths, that are extended and retracted by the butterfly through fluid pressure and muscle contractions. To see this feature, obtain an older male monarch. While holding the monarch with one hand use the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to gently squeeze the last three segments of the abdomen. With some practice, you can get the claspers to open and the hairpencils to fan out as shown here:

http://www.MonarchWatch.org/update/2002/hairpencil.html

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8) 2001 Season Summary

We've had a few inquiries about the status of the 2001 Season Summary so I thought I'd give everyone an update. As you may or may not know, there are only three of us that are responsible for writing, photos, layout and design of our annual publication. Unfortunately, we cannot dedicate our time to finishing this one project as we all wear many hats and are busy with day to day duties necessary to keep the program going. August is our busiest month and we are spreading ourselves even thinner with the Festival of Butterflies activities; needless to say, I don't think we will get a lot of work done on the Season Summary this month. If everything goes well, I'd say that the Season Summary will be delivered at about the same time as last year - around the end of October.

Thank you for your patience!

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9) How to Unsubscribe from this Update

If you would like to be removed from this Monarch Watch Update mailing list, please send an email message to

Listproc@ku.edu

and include in the body of the message (no other text):

UNSUBSCRIBE MONARCH-WATCH-UPDATE

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Thanks!

Monarch Watch
http://www.MonarchWatch.org
monarch@ku.edu