Another monarch couple was found mating in the garden yesterday, a process I have read can take up to 16 hours. The male will use his claspers, located at the end of its abdomen, to attach to the females ostium bursa.

During the mating the male will transfer spermatophore, which includes sperm and nutrients for the female to produce eggs. The female will store the sperm in her bursa sac until she lays eggs on a milkweed leaf. The sperm is fertilized as she lays eggs.

Then the stages begin, the egg, larvae, or caterpillar, pupa, or chrysalis, and then the butterfly. It will take anywhere from three to five days for an egg to hatch. The caterpillar will chew a small hole in the egg and wriggle free. Once out of the egg, the caterpillar will consume the remaining part of the egg before moving onto the nutrients of the milkweed leaf. The caterpillar will cut the leaves near the base of the milkweed blade to drain out the latex before eating. The caterpillar will molt four times before its last molt of creating a chrysalis.