There have been tons of monarch caterpillars munching on my giant milkweed lately, many of which have been relocated to our butterfly house. This male emerged yesterday and remained in the house until today when the sun came out. He hung out for a while before fluttering away.
Yesterday there were three monarch caterpillars on this particular milkweed leaf. The others must have found their final resting place to make its chrysalis. There is a tree nearby, I would imagine they are somewhere in there seeking shelter to transform to a beautiful butterfly.
Now, just this lonesome caterpillar. I moved him to a milkweed plant that offered an abundance of food.
This morning, as I was sitting in the living room looking out the window a monarch butterfly caught my attention as it glided from one plant to another. So, like any other day, I grabbed my camera and headed for the front garden.
This female absolutely loved the nectar from my red penta plant. She sipped to her heart’s content, before flying to the giant milkweed, laid an egg and then went back for some more nutrition. She was not bothered by me at all, as I snapped close to 50 photographs.
Did you know there are two different populations of monarch butterflies? The south Florida population breeds year round without migrating, while the other population is a larger eastern butterfly, which does migrate. An absolute perk of living in Southwest Florida, the ability to see these gorgeous butterflies flutter throughout the garden with the perfect gliding flight. In southern Florida, they breed all year.
The monarch can be found in all states except Alaska.
I find it interesting that the caterpillars will often cut, or eat the leaves near the base of the leaf’s blade in order to drain out the latex before eating. I read that the monarch will lay their eggs on the most toxic of the milkweed species, giving their offspring a chance at making it through its lifecycle.
Here are quite a few photographs from this morning of the monarch butterfly.
A monarch stopping by for a morning snack, nectar from a milkweed.
This beautiful female monarch was busy laying eggs on my giant milkweed this morning.
