The two days before my last monarch caterpillar formed its chrysalis, it was easily eating three to four milkweed leaves per day. Seriously, this caterpillar meant business! When I went into the laundry room where I had its mesh habitat, I could actually hear it chewing away on the leaves. Here is a video of my little guy devouring a leaf. Be sure to turn up your volume!
After releasing my three hand-raised monarch butterflies on Aug. 21st at 8:30 AM, I felt very empty and bereft, to say the least. I cleaned and bleached the plastic container and mesh butterfly habitat that I had used for them and dried them out in preparation for putting them away. That afternoon at 2:00 PM, I went out to look at my milkweed, and was bemoaning all the aphids all over it and wondering if any female monarch would ever deign to lay any eggs on it, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a tiny, 1/4 inch monarch caterpillar on one of the leaves! I couldn’t believe it! Back in business again after only 5 1/2 hours! I plucked that leaf right off and ran back into the house to place it carefully in the freshly cleaned out plastic container. Since it was already about 1/4 inch long, I guessed it was about 1 day old, based on my previous caterpillars’ growth. I never found any more eggs or caterpillars, so that must be the only survivor of any eggs its mother laid.
Now it is a week old and about 1 1/4 inches long. It has been happily eating its way through my milkweed leaves, and today I rearranged the butterfly habitat to accommodate a larger caterpillar. It has occurred to me that this caterpillar might be one of the migratory generation. Very exciting!
I found this lone 1/4 inch caterpillar the same day I released my first three butterflies!
The next day, it was already noticeably bigger.
I finally caught it molting and entering into its 3rd instar (I think!). That is its old skin behind it, and the round black and white object in front of it is its old face!
Approximately one week old today.
At home in its mesh butterfly habitat with a fresh cutting of milkweed to munch on!
In my last post, I told about finding three tiny monarch caterpillars on my milkweed and bringing them inside to raise by hand. It was astounding how quickly they grew! By the next day they had doubled in size from 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch long. Unfortunately, I had to leave on Aug. 1st for twelve days, so I left them in the capable hands of my friend who cat sits for me, henceforth known as my “cat-erpillar” sitter. I was sorry to miss out on their caterpillarhood, but she faithfully sent me pictures of their rapid growth. On Aug. 9th, the first caterpillar made its chrysalis, then the other two made theirs on Aug. 10th. I was home on Aug. 12th, so was able to observe the three chrysalises hanging in their mesh butterfly habitat, and on Aug. 19th, exactly 10 days after making the chrysalis, the first butterfly eclosed! The second two butterflies eclosed on Aug. 20th. I missed the emergence of the first butterfly, but made sure I was present for the other two the next day. What a fun experience to witness right on my kitchen table!
Here are pictures of their growth and development from caterpillar to butterfly. All three turned out to be males. Good luck, little guys!
Here is one at about 1.5 inches, enjoying its leaf.
Two inches long now!
Family portrait
Hanging from the roof of the cage, making their “J”, just before making the chrysalis.
Two chrysalises, waiting patiently while a miracle is happening inside!
Look what happened overnight! The first one has turned dark and the orange and black wings of the butterfly can be seen. The butterfly will eclose in about two hours.
Ta da!! Just beautiful!
The other two eclosed the next day. The first one came out exactly 10 minutes before the second. What a difference in 10 minutes!
Here are all three in their glory!
I released them on Aug. 21 on my New York Ironweed. The oldest one took off immediately for my neighbor’s oak tree, but the other two hung around for about 20 minutes before flying off.
One of them is having a sip of nectar!
Now I have an empty nest…here are the three empty chrysalises. Note all the silk that was used to attach them to the roof of the cage.
I am now the proud foster parent of three tiny monarch caterpillars! After watching a female monarch butterfly laying eggs on my milkweed on Friday, I started looking for eggs and found four possibilities. On Tuesday morning, I went out again to check the eggs and found that one had hatched! There under a milkweed leaf with a little crescent-shaped hole cut around it was a tiny, tiny caterpillar! Now what to do?? I googled how to raise monarch caterpillars in a plastic container with a lid. Give them milkweed leaves to munch on, keep it clean by removing the frass, and let them grow. As they get bigger, they can be moved to a mesh butterfly habitat with LOTS of milkweed and eventually they will make their chrysalis and emerge as adults. So I set up a suitable plastic container, picked off the milkweed leaf the caterpillar was on, and set it up on my dining room table. The next day, Wednesday, I went out to look at the other possible eggs and found two more caterpillars! So now I have three rapidly growing monarch caterpillars chowing down on my milkweed. At this point, they are still working on their first leaf, but as they get bigger they will need much more milkweed. I sure hope my milkweed supply is ample enough!
My first freshly-hatched monarch caterpillar! The crescent cut in the leaf is a telltale sign to look for. The caterpillar was barely 3 mm long!
Family portrait! They are about 1/4 inch long now. One is at the bottom, one is near the center, and one is at the upper right.
FROM WEEDS TO BEES 