This young caterpillar was hatched from an egg that I discovered on a milkweed leaf in a Honesdale parking lot on July 5, 2003 – the parent plant having forced a passage through the asphalt.

Luckily, I anticipated the onset of mowing and spraying operations in Honesdale and brought the egg home on its leaf. Soon after, all the milkweed plants in the vicinity were hacked to shreds as part of a "weeding" operation.

Monarchs often float above the tracks of the nearby Stourbridge Line railroad, drifting on warm air currents generated by ballast stones that support the rails. In July and August they lay eggs on milkweed plants that propagate in adjacent parking lots.

Ed Wesely