Subject: Monarch butterflies on Long Island, NY

From: [email-masked] (NEWV4)
Date: 10 Aug 1995 16:38:34 -0400

A group of teachers on long island are looking for the best place to
obtain monarch caterpillars for our classrooms.  We searched just about
every milkweed plant we saw last year but with little or no success.  We
would  be happy to come to collect the caterpillars and already have a
good source of milkweed.  Any suggestions???? thanks

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From: [email-masked] (William Alexander)
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 09:16:06 GMT

>good source of milkweed.  Any suggestions???? thanks

The following information about "Monarch Watch" is taken from their World
Wide Web pages on the internet.   Their internet Uniform Resource Locator
(URL) is:
http://129.237.246.134/
This program for tagging monarchs is suitable for second graders and older. 
This program will allow you to grow your own monarchs and release them along
with other interesting monarch related educational lessons.   

Monarch Rearing Kits (Educational Premiums)

The Monarch Watch is funded through contributions made by participants and
by individuals and organizations interested in promoting science education
in primary and secondary schools. For a contribution of $25 ($15 is
tax-deductible), we will send a Monarch Rearing Kit to the student or school
of your choice. We offer two options: Kit 1 contains six mature larvae which
will pupate 2-3 days after arrival, and will require no additional feeding.
Kit 2 contains twelve 3-5 day old larvae which should be transferred to
milkweed plants and reared in the classroom; these will pupate in about two
weeks. (Do not order Kit 2 unless you have plants available!) In both cases,
the adult butterflies will emerge 10-14 days after pupation (formation of
the chrysalis). The butterflies could be released to join the spring or fall
migrating populations or could be used to start a breeding population in the
classroom. Instructions are provided in the kits. Please note: we do not
ship monarchs to areas west of the Rocky Mountains. However, if you wish to
raise western monarchs, please contact us, and we will direct you to
suppliers on the west coast.

Other Items

For $12 plus $3 postage, we will send a Monarch Watch "migration" tee-shirt,
printed both back and front in black and brilliant monarch orange. For $10
plus $1 postage, we will send seeds from 3 common milkweed species (common
milkweed, swamp milkweed and tropical milkweed); the seeds take
approximately 8-12 weeks to grow into mature plants.

If you are interested in receiving more information about the Monarch Watch
or are interested in participating in the fall, please call or write to:

                     Orley "Chip" Taylor and Julie Ellis
                                Monarch Watch
                            Department of Biology
                     University of Kansas, Haworth Hall
                             Lawrence, KS. 66045
                                913-864-4051

I have no connection to the Monarch Watch except for purchasing their
tagging kit and their T-shirt. This beautiful shirt, which really turns
heads, has a group of monarchs flying up the front (labeled "Spring") and
another migrating south down the back (labeled: "Fall, Research,
Education").  I'm looking forward to getting my tagging kit soon but I've
only seen one monarch (no eggs or caterpillars yet) in my butterfly garden
this year in Rockville, MD.  I have almost 5 times as much swamp milkweed
(A. incarnata) this year over last year when we successfully reared and
released 6 monarchs.  Hope this helps.

See ya,                                        //\         /\\
Bill Alexander                                || + \ . . / + ||
[email-masked]                   \\____\X/____//
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