Category Archives: monarch caterpillar

Green and gold

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It was a quiet winter in the butterfly garden with the cold snaps we experienced here in Southwest Florida.

Althought the mornings start off with a slight chill in the air, by mid morning, definitely going into afternoon, the temperatures sure heat up bringing the butterflies fluttering into the garden.

I have had a butterfly garden for almost six years now – the thrill never gets old. Every day I walk through the garden in hopes of finding eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalis.

Lately, the hunt has been really easy as there are many caterpillars – monarch, gulf fritillary, polydamas swallowtail, and orange barred sulphur – right now on their various host plants.

The monarch caterpillars seem to mulitple as the days of the week go by.

There are many monarch caterpillars in every instar on the various milkweed throughout the garden. My two newly planted balloon milkweed have been a favorite.

The chrysalis are appearing as well, some on leaves, some roaming the perimeter of my house.

They are back

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The warm weather and sunny skies has sure brought the butterflies back to the garden again.

Since Easter, the monarch population has grown leaps and bounds in the butterfly garden. The caterpillars are on both my balloon milkweed, and giant milkweed, in various instars.

The monarch caterpillars feed solely on milkweed leaves, which produces glycoside toxins, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which deters other animals from eating the caterpillars.

The toxins are stored making them taste bad and remains after they emerge into a butterfly, continuing to protect them.

After the butterfly lays a cream colored egg on the bottom of a milkweed leaf, it takes anywhere from three to five days to hatch. The larvae chews a small hole in the egg to wiggle free. Once it emerges it consumes the rest of the egg before moving onto the leaf.

As the yellow, black and white stripped caterpillar eats the milkweed leaf it continues to grow and molts its old skin, splitting it in half. The caterpillar often consumes the skin before continuing eating the milkweed leaf. It can grow in length to 2″.

One of my favorite parts about having a butterfly garden is finding where the caterpillars end up making their final destination. The chrysalis below was found on my watering can, a good distance, but not too far away at the same time. 

The monarch butterfly resting on red penta, a favorite nectar plant for many species of butterflies.

A new lifecycle

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I have recently planted an abundance of milkweed for the monarch butterflies.

I now have two giant milkweed that stand at least 7 feet tall, four butterfly milkweed plants, two whorled milkweed plants and two balloon milkweed plants. It was important to me to offer a variety, kind of as an experiment to see which one they prefer to lay their eggs.

The monarch caterpillars feed solely on milkweed leaves, which produces glycoside toxins, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which deters other animals from eating the caterpillars. The toxins are stored making them taste bad and remains after they emerge into a butterfly, continuing to protect them.

The last fewdays I have noticed holes in my giant milkweed leaves, signaling that the baby monarch caterpillars have arrived!

Sure enough, I spotted quite a few strolling along on the leaves.

There are four stages in the life cycle of a monarch butterfly: the egg, the larvae (caterpillar) the pupa (chrysalis) and the butterfly.

An extra perk

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My butterfly garden is located right outside my front door and goes along the pathway to the driveway and then extends the length of the house. I have said this multiple times, it was a great placement, as I can watch the butterflies from my couch. The best, though, is catepillars love the little nook by my front door to create its chrysalis.

This time a monarch butterfly chrysalis.

A little stroll

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When walking the garden, I am constantly looking up, down and around in search for the incredible lifecycle. Today it was a little monarch caterpillar taking a stroll around the water fountain.