- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's New Year's Day and it's common for folks to turn over a new leaf.
What about the old leaves?
Sometimes if you turn over an old leaf this time of year in Solano and Yolo counties, you might find a monarch caterpillar. As of today, we have two monarchs munching away in our pollinator garden in Vacaville. They've survived through freezing temperatures, heavy winds and steady rain.
Back in the late summer and early fall, monarchs fluttered into our gardem to lay their eggs. We provide four species of milkweed. Every fall we cut back the milkweed, but not until all the 'cats are gone. This year the 'cats "weren't gone."
Monarchs surprise us. Some of our December/January sightings:
- A monarch in flight on Dec. 16, 2023 in west Vacaville
- A monarch in flight on Jan. 3, 2023 near Vacaville High School
- A monarch caterpillar munching Jan. 23, 2021 in our garden.
We remember UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro (now emeritus) of the Department of Evolution and Ecology telling us that he recorded a monarch in flight on Jan. 19, 2020 in Sacramento, but even earlier than that--UC Davis professor Louie Yang of the Department of Entomology and Nematology spotted one flying Jan. 8, 2012 in east Davis.
Shapiro, who has monitored the butterfly populations of Central California since 1972, maintains esearch website at http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/. His 10 sites stretch from the Sacramento River Delta through the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada mountains to the high desert of the Western Great Basin. It's the largest and oldest database in North America, and was recently cited by British conservation biologist Chris Thomas in a worldwide study of insect biomass.
The monarch Shapiro saw on Jan. 29, 2020, however, wasn't in his research project. As he told it in an email to his posse: "We had a visitor today--a British journalist--who wanted to go on a site walk. Rancho Cordova was next up. We went in his rental car. We were on US 50, just passing the Tower Theater in Sacramento heading eastbound, when, at 10.30 a.m. (temperature in mid-upper 50s, light North wind, mostly sunny), a Monarch, sex unknown, flew across the freeway in front of us, 20-22' up, from SW to NE. There is no possibility of error, unless I am having visual hallucinations."
And the monarch caterpillar we saw in our garden on Jan. 23, 2021? "Evidence of inland winter breeding," Shapiro told us. "Nothing surprises me any more..."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Roll call of monarch caterpillars today in a milkweed bed in a Vacaville pollinator garden.
Secretary: "Caterpillar No. 1!"
"Present."
Secretary: "Caterpillar No. 2!"
"Present!"
Secretary: "Caterpillar No. 3!"
"Present!"
Secretary: "Caterpillar No. 4!"
"Here!"
Secretary: "Caterpillar No. 5!"
"Ditto!"
Secretary: "Roll call complete. All present and accounted for. At ease, 'cats!"
Winter begins Dec. 21, but it seems like winter right now, what with the freezing cold, rain and wind. Meanwhile, the monarch fall breeding has ended, and it's doubtful these 'cats will make it to chrysalids.
"The suppression of reproductive diapause, which I hypothesize is due to warming in autumn, especially at night, will spread winter breeding inland anywhere where host plants are available in winter!" observes UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Art Shapiro of the Department of Evolution and Ecology. He's been monitoring butterfly populations in California since 1972 and maintains a research website at https://butterfly.ucdavis.edu.
How many 'cats will be present for the next roll call?
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
An aggressive 'cat did.
We were delighted to find 10 monarch caterpillars (the first of the year!) on our narrowleaf milkweed a couple of weeks ago in our Vacaville pollinator garden--but not so delighted to see what happened to one of them.
We tucked the 10 'cats in two Bohart Museum of Entomology butterfly habitats: six in the larger-sized one, and four in the medium-sized one. We filled each with lots of milkweed so they'd have plenty to eat and plenty of room to grow.
They ate. They ate. And they ate some more. They began to pupate and form those gorgeous jade green chrysalids rimmed with gold.
Just as they always do.
Or did.
All was well and good except for what occurred next in the medium-sized habitat.
One of the 'cats spun its silklike mat, attaching itself to the top of the netted habitat. It was j'ing (or hanging upside down in a J-shape) and beginning to spin rapidly to form a chrysalis. Two of its siblings were already chrysalids.
Now, j'ing is a vulnerable stage in the wild. Parasitoids, such as tachinid flies and Trichogramma wasps, can and do lay their eggs in them. And they're also, in this helpless state, fair game for such predators as birds.
But this was a "safe environment," right? Wrong.
Just as the j'ing caterpillar was spinning, an aggressive (cannibalistic?) caterpillar left its milkweed and climbed up the net and attacked it, killing it. A stream of fluid cascaded down the side of the habitat. Then the combative caterpillar climbed back down and continued eating milkweed. Several days later, it pupated and formed a chrysalis. (See image above.)
Meanwhile, its sibling remains quite dead, never completing the metamorphosis we expected it to do.
Curiosity didn't kill the 'cat.
An aggressive 'cat did.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Thar's gold in them thar hills?
Probably not. But thar's definitely gold in that there pollinator garden--our little pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.
Gold, black and white--as in the iconic monarch caterpillars.
We've been waiting all year for Mama Monarchs to lay some eggs on our milkweed. We planted four different species, watered them and watched them bloom, fade, and go to seed. The bees sipped nectar from the blossoms, aphids sucked the juices from the stems, lady beetles (aka lady bugs) ate the aphids, and milkweed bugs chewed on the seeds.
All was not going well.
Until today.
At 9 a.m., we saw FOUR monarch caterpillars munching away on our potted narrow-leaf milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis. Then at 6 tonight, FIVE more on the same batch of narrow-leaf milkweed.
Just when I was thinking I wouldn't be rearing any monarchs this year (in 2016 the tally totaled 60 plus), one or more Monarch Mamas proved me wrong.
I placed the 'cats in a netted butterfly habitat from the Bohart Museum of Entomology to protect them from predators and give them a chance at life, a chance for another generation.
What's going on with monarchs in this area is not good.
Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, who has monitored butterfly population trends on a transect across central California for 46 years, from the Sacramento River Delta through the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada mountains to the high desert of the Western Great Basin, has not seen a single egg or caterpillar this entire calendar year at his low elevation sites.
"Not one!" he told Beth Ruyak on her "Insight with Beth Ruyak" program, Capital Public Radio, Sacramento, last week.
Shapiro, who maintains a research website at http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu, will talk about butterfly population trends (including monarchs) and how climate has affected them at a free public presentation from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 11 at Sierra College, Grass Valley. The event takes place in the Multipurpose Center Building, N-12, Room 103. Parking is $3; permits can be purchased at the kiosk machine at the main entrance to the campus. (For more information, contact the series coordinator, Jason Giuliani at jgiuliani@sierracollege.edu.)
And news flash: Shapiro spotted one monarch today, an adult female, in West Sacramento.
Just one.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
No, the stuffed turkey didn't slip out of the oven and fall on the floor. Nor did the pumpkin pie turn another shade of orange.
Some unexpected guests arrived--four to be exact.
That's the number of monarch caterpillars we found on our tropical milkweed (Asclepia curassavida) in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.
Between Nov. 15 and Nov. 24, we've discovered 12 caterpillars on our tropical milkweed, a non-native perennial. (Three other species of milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, Asclepias speciosa, and Asclepias fascicularis, also thrive in our pollinator garden.)
Just when we thought our small-scale conservation project of rearing and releasing monarchs is all over 'til next year, it's not. Our season total of 54 monarchs is likely to increase.
"This is really far inland for such late breeding," said butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology who has been studying Central California butterflies for more than four decades and maintains a website on his work and monitoring observations. "Winter breeding has been occurring near the coast for some years now, but I recall no records this late east of the East Bay. October, yes. November? We really need to understand the physiology and genetics of non-repro-diapausing winter monarchs!"
"We've been seeing evidence of a significant fall window of opportunity for larval monarch development for a few years now, which seems different than the historical pattern," noted Louie Yang, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. "I've wondered if these are returning migrants that are breaking reproductive diapause when they encounter warm conditions in the Valley. I've mostly seen them on late season native milkweeds, but of course the tropical milkweeds are even more persistent."
Meanwhile, the 12 monarchs are the center of attention--well, at least a corner of attention--on our kitchen counter. Our setup: two mesh, zippered containers from the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis; and four narrow-necked, flat-bottomed bottles filled with water and milkweed stems.
The monarch caterpillars are doing what monarch caterpillars do best--and what folks around the Thanksgiving dinner table do best. Eat.