not carvewright related

[aokweld101]

I know this is not an open forum but this as beautiful as it gets we have the monarchs heading to Mexico, There not as big as they are up north I think they had to slim down for the trip My front yard was just slap full of them!!!

[SharonB]

What a photo opportunity. Wish I was there to take advantage of it.

[Digitalwoodshop]

I am getting ready this week to try to transplant a bunch of Milk Weed from a field area to along some gas pipeline new stone walls.... Plus collect some seed pods for spring. Have been reading up on the seeds and transplanting.


AL

[badbert]

Very cool! We had a Cicada Brood here a few weeks ago. They seemed like annuals but none of us remembers seeing them last year! And a few hundred large Blackish Brown bugs is a hard thing to forget! Not to mention the empty shells they leave behind after their final molt. Or the deafening noise they made when they were fully molted. I guess we'll find out next year, if they were annuals.

The cool part was my grandson, Gabe! He was fascinated by the bugs... but when they split open and a bigger bug came out...he was thrilled! Every time he went outside, he would run to the Horse Chestnut Tree where they were brooding! Bug, bug, bug! That's all we heard from him for a week!

[aokweld101]

badbert that's so funny,kids are just so cute when there curious.

[Underdog]

Looks like a Gulf Fritillary to me... Very pretty!

The Monarch has a fringe of white speckles on the top side. The Fritillary has the irregular silver spangles on the bottom.

[aokweld101]

I always have seen these every year for the past 25 yrs. I always thought they were monarchs I have always thought they were on the light side cause they weren't as big... so that is good to know...{so not monarch's}... taking mental notes ..

[aokweld101]

I just looked on the net they are not monarchs.. but gulf fritillary thanks for info. I have to change 25 yrs. of thinking also found out that there not headed to Mexico.. the flowers are blooming and in abundance, its there matting season ..lol

[dbemus]

I agree they are not monarchs. When I was teaching, my students would catch monarchs as they traveled south. We placed tiny numbered tags on their wings and released them. This was done for the University of Toronto. Later we would get a report on the travels of our tagged butterflies. The students really enjoyed that project. A book was published, "The Travels of Butterfly X"