Okay, I just noticed I kept saying "wing" above, when it should have been "wings", because they have a pair of wings on each side! Monarch General (Hospital) is now open... That made me smile. After reading these websites, I've gotten very concerned about ensuring the healthiest butterflies possible. I've even fantasized about getting a microscope - hehe! My understanding is that OE is transmittted when the larvae eat the spores on infected leaves, sprinkled there by the female when she oviposits. In the future I am going to try to collects eggs only, and even remove them from the Asclepias leaf. Then I will use sterile equipment and try to collect the freshest and youngest milkweed leaves - and wash them thoroughly to (try to) remove any OE spores. OE is an interesting pathogen. Apparently it co-exists with the Monarch population worldwide. Obviously it has evolved over the millenia along with Danaus plexippus, and that makes me wonder if there are Monarchs that may have developed some resistence? Anyway, I'm still thrilled that this female was okay. Waiting for two more to eclose any minute!!

I put tape across the abdomen, looked at it under the microscope. No sign of any spores. The cats are inside at a relatively steady 70 degrees. I don't know the humidity indoors. Container has open mesh top to let air circulate. All are in their own containers. They were all taken from the outdoors a little later on -- not reared from an egg. Can't remember what instar they were, but probably 2nd or 3rd at the earliest. I didn't notice anything strange about the 2 recent caterpillars. The one I had a week before did exhibit signs of illness, and I figured it would die -- eating slowed down, started to droop head, then she'd "revive" and eat a little again. Then she pupated successfully. She only had a slight weakness upon eclosing, which was that she hung near the bottom of the enclosure as if she didn't have the strength to move up. Then she strengthened and flew around after a few days. I know there are lots of things that can affect monarchs, but I'm not familiar with more than a couple.

Runmede; I will disagree scientifically with you :). There are lots of compounds that invertebrates sequester with the hope of discouraging other invertebrates. In fact, many of the compounds Lep larvae sequester are used to deter and fight parasitoids as well as the other wasps. The abstract below is for Chrysomela beetles and outlines how they sequester salicin, the compound found in willows that viceroys sequester as well. The beetles sequester the compound and it is found in the eggs to prevent being eaten by ants. Saliin is toxic to ants. So, I suspect that many other compounds may be used by Leps to prevent ants as well. Also, some monarchs will have little to no appreciable amounts of sequestered compounds depending on the species of Asclepias they feed on. I have seen all kinds of things eat different stages of butterflies. However, there are times that one will be left alone and I think there are reasons. Cheers, Elisabeth ABSTRACT. Eggs and neonate larvae of chrysomelid beetles (sub-tribes Chrysomelina and Phyllodectina) were investigated for the presence of defensive substances. The two isoxazolinone glucosides (compounds 1 and 2), characteristic of the adult defence secretion, were detected in the eggs of all studied species. Compound 2, containing a nitropropionate, is always present in concentrations (above 10-2 M), which are highly deterrent to the ant Myrmica rubra. This compound is not at all or only slightly toxic to ants at 10-2 M. Compound 1, devoid of nitropropionate, is a minor constituent, and is neither deterrent nor toxic to ants. The five Chrysomela species studied and Phratora vitellinae also sequester salicin in their eggs in amounts highly deterrent and toxic to ants. A single Chrysomela egg often contains enough salicin to kill an ant. While the isoxazolinones are discarded with the egg shells, salicin is used by neonate larvae as a precursor for the production of salicylaldehyde in the thoracic defence glands, already functional at hatching. No salicin could be detected in the eggs of those species whose larvae produce cyclopentanoid monoterpenes, even if they feed on Salicaceae. No larva of any species seems to be able to produce detectable amounts of monoterpenes at birth. A very early defence, possible only in those species using salicin as the precursor for their defensive secretion, could be highly advantageous in protecting the clustered larvae during the long process of hatching and in avoiding cannibalism between siblings. Only trace amounts of oleic acid were found in the eggs of Gastrophysa viridula, in contrast to previous reports on its presence in large quantities in the American G. cyanea.

not2bright, I'm looking at the links you posted, but so far I've not found anything addressing this problem. I'll keep reading. Hi, Sorry for not being clear. I really don't know that much about it, but the info at the site I linked to suggested that when your deleted message store gets to be a large size (and you are asked if you want to compact) it can take quite a while for the compacting to complete. Perhaps this is what you were experiencing. "They" also suggest never stopping/interrupting the compacting process because of the possible corruption that can occur. So they say to manually compact more often. Perhaps trying again to compact (File > Folder > Compact All Folders) and just wait to see if the compacting process completes. And only then try to delete the ones in the Sent folder, after which do another compacting. Just a suggestion from an OE user/amateur. As for your initial concern (Does choosing the yes option on compacting messages when logging out of Outlook Express make the messages impossible to be deleted?) No, the opposite. It deletes them permanently and frees up the space previously occupied by the deleted emails. Here's another comment/tip or two from the OE newsgroup: Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you compact. ***Never touch anything until the compacting is finished.*** ...... To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt and you may lose mail. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.