Subject: Monarchs in Ecuador

From: "Charles V. Covell Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 09:54:05 EDT

Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292
PHONE: (502) 852-6771

'lo, folks.  Just back from Ecuador and its wonderful Galapagos Islands
where we had a small summer school ecology class of students.  Reading
notes on monarchs not very common northward bound from Mexico prompts me
to report that they were more abundant at Tinalandia, Pichincha, Ecuador,
than I have ever seen there in the past.  Could be the N. American migrants
took a look at the weather, pollution, cut-down ASCLEPIAS, and dangerous
highways of the good ole USA and decided to go down to Ecuador instead!
Seriously, I just wanted to report the abundance there, and ask if anyone
knows if there is really a subspecific difference between the NA D. plexippus
and those of mainland SA.  Oh, and we saw one swamped female monarch on
Floreana, Galapagos.  See some of you at Houston next week.  Cheers, Charlie

Charles V. Covell Jr.   [email-masked]
Dept. of Biology, University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292-0001   PHONE: (502) 852-6771 (office)
(502) 852-0725 (FAX); (502) 456-6122 (home).  "So many bugs..."

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From: [email-masked] (Pierre A Plauzoles)
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 16:13:47 GMT

In a previous article, [email-masked] ("Charles V. Covell Jr.") says:

>Floreana, Galapagos.  See some of you at Houston next week.

Hmmmm.  Interesting.  I didn't know they even migrated past Guatemala, 
let alone all the way down to Ecuador and the Galapagos.

Thanks for the good news.

-- 
Pierre Plauzoles   [email-masked]
Canoga Park, California

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From: [email-masked] (Tom Cohoe)
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 05:29:38 GMT

>let alone all the way down to Ecuador and the Galapagos.

I am interested, also, to see that the monarch reaches Guatamala.  I
suspect that other species of monarchs may be involved, but not
plexippus there.  Further South, in the humid tropics of Nova
Teutonia, Santa Catarina, and nearby areas,  species of monarchs occur
which at first glance resemble plexippus.  Possible one of these in
its Northward distribution may be involved.  Fritz Plauman used to
collect these other monarch species in Nova Teutonia.  Was the
Guatamalan speciman preserved?  If not too worn it might be possible
to identify it.  I think there are good characters in the genitalia
upon dissection.

                                                        Walter Krivda,
                                                        The Pas, MB,
                                                         R9A-1K8,
                                                         CANADA.