Monarch Butterfly Migration Update: May15, 2008

May 4, 2008
Indianapolis, Indiana
By Marty Davis

It's quite unusual for us to see returning migrants, or to have eggs this early, or to have this many eggs in May!

In the past 10 days I've found 197 eggs and very little milkweed to sustain them. In fact, had I not gathered all those eggs and distributed them to others with milkweed growing indoors, they would have all starved.

This plant was about 4 inches tall and had 17 eggs on it. I think you can only see about four here, but there were 17!!

This was the only nectar around!

Here's a mom who I believe is a returning migrant (from Mexico). She laid her eggs in my yard on Sunday, May 4th.

Here she is again, laying an egg on a small swamp milkweed plant.