Our third monarch emerged this week. This one is a male. You can see in this first photo that there's a distinct spot along one of the marking lines on his open wings; that is the scent gland that is specific to males.
In the second photo, where his wings are folded and you see the underside, the spot isn't visible. Because of that, we thought we had another female for the first couple of hours after he emerged, as none of us saw him with his wings spread. It wasn't until I tagged him that I saw the scent spot. And it's a good thing I did take a closer look, otherwise he would have been labelled female on our tracking form, and who knows what that might have done to him!
This robust little fellow took to flight within minutes of being taken out of the rearing cage and tagged. I was about to transfer him to Brown Eyed Boy's fingers when he took to wing and soared into a nearby maple, at which point we lost sight of him. He must know that time is getting short to make the journey south to Mexico.
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice comment on my nature blog.
You may use my morning glory photo for your desktop if you would like to.
Thanks for asking,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Beautiful entries, Jennifer.
ReplyDeleteThe biscotti looks delicious!
Emily and Lucas' drawings are amazing! They have a real eye for what they are drawing - and patience, too, I am sure!
I really enjoy your writing.
Thanks, Sarah,
ReplyDeleteEmily made the chocolate-dipped anise biscotti - she loves to bake and cook, so I'm getting lots of help in the kitchen lately!
I never did tell you the names of our pets. In order of emergence from chrysalis, they were: Autumn (female), Falline (female), Aidan (male - guess who named him!), Buttercup (female), and Wesley (male). Wesley was the last one to be released just yesterday, and now we have a bittersweet empty space in the home.