Yesterday at the Oahe Downstream Butterfly Garden there were at least 7 regal fritillaries. Most of them were females - the second row of dots on the wings were white not orange (=male). We have lots of violets in the garden so hopefully some of their eggs land close to the violets. The eggs will hatch this year and then the first instar of caterpillars will overwinter at the base of the violets.
Hello iNaturalist community,
I am pleased to announce that Charlie has a link to our citizen science project up and running.
https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/southdakota/Citizen_Science.php
It includes some basic instructions for making observations of Regals, Monarchs, and bumble bees. Please look at all the sheets, and when making observations, please fill out the form and send them (emailed preferred) to Dan or Charlie. You can also make sure to fill out all the information on your iNaturalist post. We ask that you please obscure the exact location for all Regal encounters you post on iNaturalist. We do want this data, but send us a note (email is preferred) with your iNaturalist name, time and date of the observation if you fill out all the boxes on iNaturalist. You may also send us forms if you are not part of iNaturalist, they are just as valuable, with or without a photo.
Thank you for participating!
Dan
