Current Listings of Population and Data for Southern California
(Note: Extremely dry and hot Santa Ana Winds on Nov. 16 & 17 in Los Angeles & Ventura Counties, and Nov. 24 in San Diego County,influenced many butterflies to take flight, move or hide in low dark areas — causing a less accurate count. Information not yet received is represented by the symbol “-”).

Separating milkweed seeds from the floss can be a messy and aggravating task. I have listed three of the easiest methods I have encountered during the past twenty-five years of growing milkweed plants. The methods shown below are for Aslepias curassavica, however any milkweeds species may be chosen. All techniques for removing seeds from the floss should be done outdoors.

Paper wasps, from the genus Polistes, are also a nuisance for butterfly gardeners. Some paper wasp species are commonly mistaken for yellow jackets. This article attempts to clear up the confusion.

A Tardy Monarch! Carmen Kappos was on her way home to Mammoth Lakes, CA, traveling north on Hwy 395 on November 18th. She decided to pull over at Coso Junction (c. 70 miles south of Bishop) to take her dog for a short walk at a rest stop. As she was walking her dog through […]

The 2013 Thanksgiving Monarch Counts Begin! This seasons’ Thanksgiving Counts will be held from November 16th through December 8th 2013. The project has been a favorite holiday activity since the counts began in 1997. The goal this season is to have every county checked with as many sites as possible recorded. Click on Thanksgiving Counts […]

2012 Thanksgiving Counts Monarch Program Volunteer Counters: Kris Ethington, Donna Grubusic, David Marriott, Cynthia Martinson, Mark Walker, and Irene Zabelin. Thirty-three sites were checked from Santa Barbara to San Diego Counties. San Diego County Site Sky Temp.  Hum. Population Time Date Hosp Grove, Carlsbad S 65 44% 35 1:45 21 Nov. Camino Real & Chestnut, […]

The Monarch Program Facility in Encinitas is Now Closed The facility has been a favorite destination for children on field trips for 21 years. Thousands of families have visited to enjoy the ambiance and intimate environment of the butterfly house and be educated about native butterflies, especially monarchs. There have been young volunteers through the […]

Butterfly farm to spread its wings Encinitas vivarium will close June 23 and relocate to a new, bigger location this summer Written by Pam Kragen JUNE 18, 2013Excerpt from utsandiego.com The Monarch Program and Hatchery currently located in Encinitas will be relocating to a more accessible location that will allow for more sun for the […]

NEWS RELEASE: The Monarch Program facility in Encinitas will be closing on June 23rd 2013. The facility has been a favorite destination for children on field trips for 21 years. Thousands of families have visited to enjoy the ambiance and intimate environment of the butterfly house and be educated about native butterflies, especially monarchs. There […]

Monarch Program associate Donna Grubussic reared a monarch butterfly from an egg and released it as an adult on the 30th of September, 2007 from Carpinteria, California. It was a female with tag #64231 placed over the right forewing. On the 4th of January 2008 the entire forewing of the butterfly was found in Phoenix, Arizona. A forewing alone without damage usually indicates a bird attack, often by kingbirds (Tyrannus spp.) The distance it traveled was about 430 miles (straight line distance).

One of the three people that viewed the butterfly identified it from the specimen shown in the photograph. She is a butterfly gardener and has reared many native species. She claimed it was not a pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor) because she has reared the species. The red-spotted purple is a Batesian mimic of the poisonous pipevine swallowtail. “This one did not have tails. It was smaller, had darker forewings along the edge, with iridescent blue on the hindwings, like a morpho butterfly. It reminded me of being in the tropics,” she said.

Remember the clouds of painted lady butterflies that swarmed across the county last spring, splattering on windshields and amazing beachgoers?

There’s a good reason you haven’t seen such hordes this season: It’s shaping up to be the worst year for California butterflies in nearly four decades, according to a UC Davis butterfly expert.

David F. Marriott, Director of The Monarch Program, spotted a different looking yellow sulfur butterfly near a Cassia plant at The Monarch Program Facility in Encinitas, California in mid-July 2004. He noticed the flight pattern and size of the butterfly was different than the common cloudless sulfur (Phoebis senna). It reminded him of the flight pattern he saw of the orange-barred sulfur (Phoebis philea) while leading Monarch Tours to Central Mexico (Michoacan) — a long flap, flap, and gliding “V” pattern. The butterfly was confirmed as an orange-barred sulfur on July 24th 2004. Life stages were photographed and field specimens were collected to document the presence of the butterfly in San Diego County.

David Marriott and two colleagues (Seiko Sudo and Bill Howell) from The Monarch Program visited the Camp Pendleton monarch site to obtain wildlife permits on October 13th, 2005. While monitoring the population, Marriott tagged ONE male monarch for demonstration.

Nearly two months later, on December 8th, 2005, Marriott and a group of volunteers spotted the butterfly in a cluster of monarchs in Carpinteria at a site known as Carpinteria Creek (Santa Barbara County), about 145 miles straight line distance northwest of Camp Pendleton. One tagged monarch, one recovery — this has never happened before. The datum continues to support Marriott’s research that monarchs fly northwest to sites that have cooler microclimates when the temperatures are too warm in the Southwest (click here for migration patterns and previous records).

The Monarch Program in Encinitas will be the destination of this year’s final summer interpretive hike offered by the San Marcos Community Services Department, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

Although most of the Discover San Marcos hikes take place in and around the local hills and lakes on the first Saturday of each month, the upcoming event will be more of an interpretive talk than a hike, said Susan La Joie of the community services department.

“Others [hikes] are much more aerobic-like,” she said, adding that the heat and the Labor Day weekend have combined to make the butterfly program an idea destination.

Summerlike weather fostered a prolific hatch of desert butterflies yesterday, with gusting Santa Ana winds turning local skies into paisley landscapes. The swarms of painted lady butterflies – numbering in the millions – were a source of wonder and distraction for morning commuters, especially along the San Diego County coastline.

On May 7, 2005 a pale female monarch emerged at The Monarch Program Facility in Encinitas, California. Its origin was from native livestock obtained from Donna Grubusic of Caperpinteria, California (near Santa Barbara). She collected eggs and larvae from her backyard to help supply teachers and other educational programs at the Facility.

Although the monarch was not entirely white, it had a pale color that has never been recorded in the Southwest. Monarch Program records only include one very pale female monarch from Camp Pendleton in 1989, and one overwintering white monarch photographed by Lepidoperist John Lane in Santa Cruz, California in the mid-1980’s.

On July 22, 2004, I noticed a monarch larva from our rearing stock that looked very different. It had eight skin filaments. Within a week I noticed two more larvae with eight filaments. The extra filaments did not appear until the early third instar. I have reared many queen butterflies (Danaus gilippus) which have six filaments. But, after 15 years of rearing tens of thousands of monarchs, I have never seen more than four filaments on the larvae. I have encountered many different aberrations, but never an “eight hair” monarch larva. Some milkweed butterfly species in Africa with multi-skin filaments are common, but not in North America.

Large migrating numbers of painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) and west coast lady butterflies (Vanessa annabela) should be present in the Southwest in late March and early April. Above normal rainfall in this region during the month of February helped produce an enormous wild growth of cheeseweed (Malva parviflora), a favorite host plant for these two species of painted lady butterflies.

The anticipated population increase and possible mass migration is based on a high number of larvae present on the host plants at this writing (10 March 2003). Predation is low this time of year because the caterpillar’s main predators; the tachinid flies (which parasitize the larvae), and chalcid wasps (parasitizing the pupae), are fewer in numbers this early in the season. The low number of predators should help increase the butterfly population.

Visit butterflies Anise swallowtail, mourning cloak, and California dogface are just a of the native species that have taken up residency at the Butterfly Vivarium. Discovering the intricacies of gardening for butterflies, charting migration patterns, petting caterpillars, and observing the initiates emerging from their pupae are all part of the Monarch Program’s docent-led tours. Stepping inside the butterfly house, guests are encouraged to feed watermelon to the more than 80 butterflies fluttering about. Wear white: butterflies are attracted to it because it reflects heat.