Methyl bromide (MeBr) is used extensively in agriculture as a soil fumigant and there is growing concern over the role it may play in the depletion of stratospheric ozone. Methyl bromide is applied using various techniques and very little is known about how much of the applied fumigant volatilizes into the atmosphere after the application. This field study was designed to estimate the post‐application methyl bromide volatilization loss rates from two different application practices. The fields were approximately 6 km apart in Monterey County, California, and were treated in conformity with local practices as of 1992. The MeBr was injected at a depth of 25 to 30 cm. One field was covered simultaneously with a high‐barrier plastic film tarp during the application, and the other was left uncovered, but the furrows made by the injection shanks were bedded over. Volatilization fluxes were estimated using an aerodynamic‐gradient technique immediately following the completion of the application process and continued for 9 d for the tarped field and 6 d for the nontarped field. The cumulative volatilization losses from the tarped field were 22% of the nominal application within the first 5 d of the experiment and about 32% of the nominal application within 9 d including the one day after the tarp was removed on Day 8 after application. In contrast, the nontarped field lost 89% of the nominal application by volatilization in 5 d. The volatilization rate from the tarped field was shown to be significantly lower than the nontarped field at a 95% confidence level.

The majority (85%) of 394 monarch butterflies sampled from overwintering sites in Mexico contain the same epoxy cardenolide glycosides, including most conspicuously a novel polar glycoside with a single genin-sugar bridge (aspecioside), as occur in the milkweedsAsclepias speciosa andA. syriaca. This cardenolide commonality was established by isolating aspecioside and syriobioside from the wings of overwintering monarchs and the two plant species, and comparing Chromatographie and NMR spectrometric characteristics of the isolates. When combined with the migratory pattern of monarchs and the distribution of these two milkweed species, this chemical evidence lends strong support to the hypothesis thatA. syriaca is the major late summer food plant of monarchs in eastern North America. This finding may be of ecological importance, forA. syriaca contributes less cardenolide and cardenolides of lower emetic potency to monarchs than most milkweeds studied to date.

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In connection with requirements of California's Toxic Air Contaminant Act, 24‐h ambient air samples were collected using an XAD‐4 resin trap technique capable of simultaneously collecting methyl parathion, methyl paraoxon, molinate and thiobencarb. Sampling was conducted on rooftops of public buildings located in four towns in two counties where methyl parathion, molinate and thiobencarb were used in significant quantities, and at a background site located in a county where no use occurred, for four intervals each week for 5 weeks during the springtime application period of 1986. Satisfactory recoveries (greater than 66%) were obtained from dynamic spiking experiments, and the precision from field replicates was consistently less than 50% relative standard deviation using a protocol designed to accommodate a large number of samples. Daily maximum average concentrations (and the range in averages for all sites over the 19 and 20 sampling days in the two‐county use area) were 25.7 ng/m3 (0.2‐6.2 ng/m3) for methyl parathion, 3.1 ng/m3 (<0.5‐0.8 ng/m3) for methyl paraoxon, 1,720 ng/m3 (60‐650 ng/m3) for molinate and 250 ng/m3 (12.9‐67.8 ng/m3) for thiobencarb. Concentrations correlated well with reported uses of methyl parathion and molinate in the general vicinity of the sampling sites. The likely sources of observed residue levels, based upon the method of application and pesticide physicochemical properties, were spray drift during application for methyl parathion, vapor‐phase oxidation of parent thion for methyl paraoxon, and postapplication volatilization from field water for molinate and thiobencarb.