After returning to my home in Baton Rouge on September 3, I noticed a female ovipositing on A. curassavica in my personal butterfly garden. Other gardeners within south Louisiana (for example, Folsom) have noticed females ovipositing on A. curassavica as well.

The sixth annual "Festival of Butterflies 2002" at Powell Gardens (Kansas City, MO) during the weekends of August 15-18 and 23-25 Celebration was a great success. MONARCH WATCH was well represented (and well received) in a netted conservatory. While monarchs while scarce prior to the festival, the butterflies were quite common throughout the weekends of festivities, providing the thousands of visitors with great opportunities for observing the butterflies in the "wild." Many female monarchs were laying eggs--both in the conservatory occupied by MONARCH WATCH and on milkweeds planted throughout the gardens. After completing the festival, I traveled through eastern Kansas and noticed moderate numbers of monarchs on the KONZA PRAIRIE near Manhattan and TALLGRASS PRAIRIE NATIONAL PRESERVE near Strong City (actual numbers are recorded in my official FOURTH OF JULY BUTTERFLY COUNTS for NABA). I observed several females ovipositing on Asclepias syriaca. On Mt. Magazine, Arkansas I noticed a moderate number of monarchs (numbers reported in my NABA count) with several females laying on A. tuberosa.