Subject: Monarch eggs

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: 3 May 1996 03:49:13 GMT

Thank You for your inqiry:

Monarch eggs: $ 0.75 ea, larvae: $ 1.00-$2.00 ea, pupae: $ 4.00 ea.
plus next day shipping cost.  10% discount for 100 pieces or more.

- Clark Thompson
  Orange, CA

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From: [email-masked] (Phil Schappert)
Date: Sun, 05 May 1996 14:52:05 GMT

>plus next day shipping cost.  10% discount for 100 pieces or more.

I reiterate:

Please note that these are WESTERN monarchs. Buyers in the west can go
ahead and buy what they will, but I urge any eastern population buyers
tempted by this offer to first obtain (and READ) the article by Brower et
al. in BioScience 45(8): 540-544, 1995 called "On the dangers of
interpopulational transfers of Monarch Butterflies". There is also a letter
regarding problems with this parasite in captive rearing efforts by
researchers which can be found at Monarch Watch on the web.

The problem is that the western population is currently undergoing a
pervasive infestation of a Neogregarine protozoan parasite, _Ophryocystis_
_electroscirrha_. The infection rate is estimated to be between 55 and 65
percent and is likely the reason for the ongoing precipitous decline in the
western populations. It would be beneficial to keep this parasite out of
the eastern population if at all possible - cross-transfer of eggs or
larvae from west to east could result in drastic consequences.

I really hope you'll consider this. This is important, folks...

Phil

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Phil Schappert
Biology, York University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
[email-masked] or [email-masked]