Subject: Re Monarchs UK

From: Simon Coombes <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 17:47:41 EST

I have been reading with great interest the debate on the origin of the recent
influx of Monarchs, I myself was lucky enough to see one.

It seems to me to be a problem that cannot easily be resolved. On the one hand
there is the Atlantic migration possibility for which there is a good amount of
evidence. There is the arrival of American migrant birds mainly in the far West
of England,  caused by the weather conditions in North America. The arrival of
American painted lady at the same time has been discussed and would probably
have come from the same source, South or West. In addition I am led to believe
the Canaries / African populations have ceased to migrate (don't know if this is
true !)

Historically Monarchs have been recorded since 1876, which is odd in itself, as
it is a very notable butterfly and other migrants have much earlier records, and
there are some quite interesting records from the last century. In his book
'Butterflies' E.B. Ford cites a Glasgow steamer bound for America  c1880 on
which several Monarchs were caught 200 or 300 miles offshore, giving at least
some indication of the direction from which they came and the fact they were
flying and not shipborne. (He also mentions racial characteristics of North,
Central and South American Monarchs of which I am unaware. Are there any and if
so are there not differences between American and North African Monarchs?)

The other alternative is that Monarchs migrated from the South, The Canaries or
North Africa. This is backed up partially by the arrival of European migrants,
(L.boeticus and C.crocea) but I feel this isn't really very strong evidence as
their arrival was spread over a longer period where as the Monarchs seemed to
arrive on the same single day. The idea of cross-checking with Spanish/French
records is also inconclusive because any records could be from the same batch of
possible American migrants that have made their landfall further South.

My personal feelings tend to go with the American option, as do a number of
others to whom I have spoken over the last few weeks, but how to prove it.
Martin Honey mentioned DNA sequencing, as I am not a Biologist I don't really
know much about this technique, but there have been captured specimen from this
years arrivals and could this not be done, or is it a little expensive. It would
certainly give answers to a most puzzling question.

Simon Coombes