My Butterfly Garden has been happily attracting many varieties of guests for several months.
Question - It was not until recently that I noticed my first Monarch. Are Monarchs seasonal in Central Florida? If so, is it part of an annual migration?
If the answer is that Monarchs aren't seasonal, my only guess is that they are attracted to the Milkweed and Lantana that started to bloom profusely this month.
Monarch Migration?
Both Milkweed and Lantana are nectaring plants for the Monarch, with Milkweed also being the larval plant for their caterpillars. :-)
Whether seasonal or not in Florida, I don't know, have heard that some are here all year long, but not sure.
Enjoy!
I am in Central Florida, too. I've noticed more Monarchs in the spring and fall -- almost like a migration. I hadn't seen one in about a month and now I'm overrun with eggs and caterpillars. I've brought in about 50 Monarch eggs over the past week.
Terrie
Gee--sounds like you all are lucky and must be on the Monarch Migration path!
Here's a link to the Monarch Watch site that explains all about the Monarch's unique migration and even has a chart that shows when you can expect them to visit your range.
http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/index.htm
It's always good to have some Milkweed (Asclepias) in your garden for them when they come through--they will lay more eggs and you may have some butterflies for next season too!
Here's a page with lots of good info about them, too.
http://www.monarchwatch.org/index.html
Have fun!
This message was edited Oct 17, 2007 8:45 AM
I see monarch butterflies all year in my garden. They do love asclepias (milkweed).
bsewall,
Your right --If you have lots of milkweed you should have them hang in your yard location until next summer when it becomes to hot for the nectaring plants and they head north wards to feed and then return around this time for the winter and spring.We and S.Florida are an overwintering location for a small population of Monarchs.If you have and keep nice healthy milkweed you'll have Monarchs visiting for awhile.
They are still hanging around at my place here in NC. Saw 3 of them on my butterfly bush yesterday.
Interesting about the monarchs overwintering in the Miami area. I wonder if this is a special breed of monarch? and I wonder why the monarchs that migrate to Mexico don't just find a spot in Florida to overwinter!?
Very interesting---does anyone know of an article about FLA overwintering?
We have had overwintering Monarchs every winter except last winter when it got to be very cold. I have hundreds of blooming Mexican Milkweeds now, but have only seen a couple of Monarchs this fall.
trois