Monarch Program News

NEWS

2007 News

It's a bad year for butterflies May 12, 2006

New Butterfly Species in the Southwest: The Orange-Barred Sulfur (Phoebis philea)

David F. Marriott, Director of The Monarch Program, spotted a different looking yellow sulfur butterfly near a Cassia plant at The Monarch Program Facility in Encinitas, California in mid-July 2004. He noticed the flight pattern and size of the butterfly was different than the common cloudless sulfur (Phoebis senna). It reminded him of the flight pattern he saw of the orange-barred sulfur (Phoebis philea) while leading Monarch Tours to Central Mexico (Michoacan) -- a long flap, flap, and gliding “V” pattern. The butterfly was confirmed as an orange-barred sulfur on July 24th 2004. Life stages were photographed and field specimens were collected to document the presence of the butterfly in San Diego County.

This species remained flying through the autumn and were noticed again in the spring of 2005. They continued breeding in the wild and inside The Monarch Program’s Butterfly Vivarium through the summer and autumn. Recently, 23 January 2006, a wild female orange-barred sulfur was observed ovipositing on flowery senna (Cassia corymbosa) at the facility in Encinitas.

After numerous generations totaling a flight period of 19 months, the butterfly should now be considered a transient resident of the Southwest. It is a tropical butterfly that is slowly making a new home because of changing climate and flora conditions. Perhaps a cold winter may effect the population someday.

These are the first records recorded for the orange-barred sulfur to breed in the far Southwest (west of eastern Arizona and New Mexico’s southern borders). Butterfly expert and author John Emmel has one record of a worn female ovipositing on Cassia in the backyard of lepidopterist Robert J. Ford on 23 September 1983 in Bundy Canyon, Sun City, Riverside County. Otherwise, this is our first encounter of this stunning yellow and orange butterfly to reside in Southern California.

The appearance of this species in San Diego County has been confirmed by Brian Banker (amateur lepidopterist), John F. Emmel (author, lepidopertist), Bill Howell (Biologist, amateur lepidoperist), and Christian Manion (amateur lepidopterist). Scientist Ken Davenport has called this the most important butterfly discovery in 50 years.

NEWS FLASH: WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

David Marriott and two colleagues (Seiko Sudo and Bill Howell) from The Monarch Program visited the Camp Pendleton monarch site to obtain wildlife permits on October 13th, 2005. While monitoring the population, Marriott tagged ONE male monarch for demonstration.

Nearly two months later, on December 8th, 2005, Marriott and a group of volunteers spotted the butterfly in a cluster of monarchs in Carpinteria at a site known as Carpinteria Creek (Santa Barbara County), about 145 miles straight line distance northwest of Camp Pendleton. One tagged monarch, one recovery -- this has never happened before. The datum continues to support Marriott’s research that monarchs fly northwest to sites that have cooler microclimates when the temperatures are too warm in the Southwest (click here for migration patterns and previous records).

The Pendleton site has more monarchs this season since 1997. The estimate on December 4th, 2005 was 830. In 1997 it was 10,000. The population from 1998 through 2004 was never more than 150. Except for Camp Pendleton, there are few monarchs at all sites south of Orange County. Most monarchs are spending the winter between Ventura County and the Bay Area this season (click here for where you can see the monarchs this winter).

Miracle MonarchTag Photo by Bill Howell with an 800 mm. telephoto lens (Carpinteria Creek, Santa Barbara County, 8 December 2005)

The monarch in the middle left of the frame with blue pen marks on the upper cells of the lower wing indicates a specific code for our mark, tag, and release program. The code on this monarch showed that is was a male monarch tagged and marked at the Camp Pendleton habitat on October 13th and found alive in Santa Barbara County nearly two months later(report includes climate data for both sites). Our tags are folded over the right forewing -- a thin strip of the tag can be seen in this photo. The tag has our toll free telephone "report number" when people find a tagged butterfly.

Albinic Monarch in Southern California

On May 7, 2005 a pale female monarch emerged at The Monarch Program Facility in Encinitas, California. Its origin was from native livestock obtained from Donna Grubusic of Caperpinteria, California (near Santa Barbara). She collected eggs and larvae from her backyard to help supply teachers and other educational programs at the Facility.

Although the monarch was not entirely white, it had a pale color that has never been recorded in the Southwest. Monarch Program records only include one very pale female monarch from Camp Pendleton in 1989, and one overwintering white monarch photographed by Lepidoperist John Lane in Santa Cruz, California in the mid-1980’s.

Albinic monarchs are common in Hawaii (form “alba”) but not in North America. Nearly 20% of monarchs in Hawaii are white. Their common host plant is Calotropis gigantea. Some breeders sell the white monarchs for wedding ceremonies.

The pale monarch at The Monarch Program Facility disappeared after one week, probably due to visitors opening and closing the doors to the Vivarium. No matings occurred for a possible offspring but there are photographs of the newly emerged adult.