July Update

As I walked through the residential neighborhood to the U of MN campus today, I passed a female monarch fluttering around a blooming common milkweed, taking sips from the flowers and quickly laying an egg on the underside of a leaf. Then, a block later, another monarch quickly flew by at eye level, on its way to a milkweed plant in a nearby garden, I imagine. All these sightings got me wondering what was happening in all your neighborhoods across North America. I also wanted to remind you that this is a GREAT time of season to collect your once-a-year milkweed density data while the milkweed is at its height. Find the datasheet and directions on the MLMP website at:

http://www.mlmp.org/Monitoring/datasheets/Measuring-Milkweed-Density.pdf

I hope the new website, the new detailed monarch density data collection activity, as well as the new aphid data collection activity are serving you well. Let us know how it is going! We would love any feedback from YOU in the monarch habitat trenches. And of course do not hesitate to email us (info@mlmp.org) with absolutely any comments or questions. You can also email any photos, art, or cool monarch monitoring observations to that same email address.

We look forward to hearing monarch news, getting your rich data, and learning more about monarchs together.

Happy monitoring!

Dina Kountoupes
MLMP Coordinator
U of MN, St. Paul, MN

Activity #3 (Parasitism) Revised

Dear Monarch Monitors,

There are monarchs in Minnesota, which probably means they're almost everywhere! Be sure to catch the monarchs as they return to your monitoring sites, and submit any data you've collected before they arrive. We can only confirm when they arrive in an area if we have some "absence data" before the "presence data" start.

We have a modified version of the datasheet and directions for Activity 3, Estimating Parasitism Rates, on our website. We are working with Project MonarchHealth to obtain a more complete picture of monarch parasites, and this datasheet describes how to collect data on Oe (Ophryocystis elektroschirrha) infections. You'll need to request a sampling kit from the MonarchHealth folks at the University of Georgia, but this is easy to do and will cost you nothing. This is optional, but will be interesting and valuable.

We hope that you're finding the new MLMP website and other new activities easy to use. Be sure to let us know if you have questions, concerns or comments!

All the best, Karen Oberhauser

Updates from Karen Oberhauser

Dear MLMP Monitors:

There’s no milkweed up in central Minnesota yet, but it’s good to read reports of monarchs moving north from southern MLMP team members. I’m sending a few quick reminders about the upcoming monitoring season, our new website, and exciting data analyses. Since we’ve made a few changes to our data sheets, please download them from the website to make sure you’re using the most current versions. As always, please let us know if you have questions or comments, and THANKS for your great work.

1. Report your data even if you don’t see monarchs! This is so important, especially this year when we expect monarch numbers to be low. If you don’t report data, we can’t know for sure where monarchs are and are not.
2. Update your site coordinates. Our Webmaster, Amy Witty, has added a wonderful tool to the website that allows you to locate your site exactly and easily. Simply go into “update site information” and check the map below the coordinates. If it doesn’t show the exact location of your site, click to find the precise coordinates. This click will take you to a Google map, where you can move a marker to get the exact latitude and longitude. Exact locations will help us to understand fine-scale details about monarch habitat use. You can use the map, satellite, or terrain view; the satellite image is fun to play with.
3. New (optional) monarch density activity. If you’re interested in learning even more about how monarchs use milkweed, check out our new version of the monarch density activity. This version allows you to track the number of monarchs on individual milkweed plants, and to keep track of monarch use of different milkweed species in your monitoring site. Recent evidence that monarch density on individual plants may affect susceptibility to disease prompted up to add this activity. You’ll use a different data sheet and enter the data a little differently, which takes some getting used to, but it worked well for us in a trial run last summer.
4. New (optional) aphid monitoring activity. We hear a lot about the bright yellow aphids (Aphis nerii) on your milkweed plants, and we’re now tracking their distribution. The monarch density data sheets (online and hard copy) now have a box to check every week to let us know if you have or haven’t seen these aphids (or if you didn’t look). If you’d like to collect more detailed aphid data, please contact either Karen (oberh001@umn.edu) or Emily Mohl (mohlx@umn.edu).
5. Project MonarchHealth. If you raise monarchs for the parasitoid study, consider checking these monarchs for the parasite Oe through MonarchHealth (www.monarchparasites.org or email monarch@uga.edu to get a free monitoring kit).
6. Monarch monitoring data analysis. A group of ecologists and citizen science program coordinators is working to conduct a collaborative analysis of 18 (!) different monarch monitoring data sets, including the MLMP. This joint effort, called MonarchNet, is looking at impacts of disease, population trends, habitat use, effects of climate, and many other features of monarch biology.

Here’s to a good summer for monarchs, and for all of you!

Karen

Website Redesign, 2010 Newsletter, and more!

Dear Monarch Larva Monitors and Friends:

There are monarchs in southern Texas, there is a new MLMP newsletter out, AND we are very excited to announce the launching of the new MLMP website at www.mlmp.org. The website has a completely new look, and many new exciting features. Please take some time to check it out. We hope that the organization will be much clearer, and that you'll find lots of new and useful features.

One of the first things you should try out is the Google Maps method for locating the exact latitude and longitude coordinates of your monitoring site. Once you enter these coordinates, your old data will be correctly placed in the world. Next, you should check out the new, optional version of Activity 1, estimating monarch density. Then, if you haven't seen it in your mailbox, find our 2010 newsletter!

As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions. And, if you find any technical glitches, send them to webadmin@mlmp.org right away.

Thanks, Karen, Amy, Dina and the rest of the MLMP team

MLMP Website Redesign Coming!

We will be shutting down the MLMP website temporarily beginning on Friday evening, March 5, 2010. It will be down for several days while we migrate all of the monitoring data into our new database format. When the site comes back online, it will have a whole new look and feel. If you have any questions, comments, or experience any technical difficulties, please contact us.

Monarchs in Maryland

"We seemed to have an abundant year by the number of chrysalids that I saw in our gazebo. I even had a chrysalis on our soda vending machine that I had to rescue." -Stephanie Jacob, Upper Marlboro, MD

Hello and happy autumn to all MLMP volunteers!

I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your participation in the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project in 2009. Your contribution is an invaluable part of monarch conservation research!

The Northern U.S. monarch season is over (with 2 inches of snow here today in St. Paul, MN!) yet the Southern U.S is still going strong with welcomed rains bringing new growth and vigor to the milkweed. As the monarchs begin their migration south to Mexico, I wanted to bring your attention to an interesting article on monarch migration research recently covered by the BBC. There are some very cool findings about how those little butterflies find their way back to those Fir trees on that same mountain in Mexico every year. You can read the article by clicking on the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8273069.stm

I would also like to remind participants to please send in your original monitoring data sheets, if you haven’t already. It’s important that we have original data for validity of this 12-year-long citizen science research project.