A monarch caterpillar creating its chrysalis in my new beautiful butterfly house. It’s always fascinating to watch.
The “dance”
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Category Archives: monarch caterpillar
Munch away
I planted three new native milkweed plants in the garden late last month for Joyful Butterfly. I planted it right underneath my front window, so we spot the female monarch laying eggs on the plants all the time.
The monarch caterpillars are munching away at an incredibly speed!
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″.
The caterpillar will molt four times, going through “instars” before its last molt.
Once they reach two inches they are ready for their pupa stage. The caterpillar finds the perfect destination to form its chrysalis and weaves a silk mat. The caterpillar grabs the silk with its legs to hang upside down in the “J” form, according to Arizona State University School of Life Sciences.
My kind of “egg” hunt
My kind of “egg” hunt resulted in finding three different butterfly species chrysalis throughout the garden – monarch, gulf fritillary, and orange barred sulphur. . . This monarch caterpillar was just finishing its chrysalis right outside my front door. My kind of Easter egg hunt.
So many
And it continues . . . monarch csterpillars everywhere on my giant milkweed. The Southwest Florida skies were an amazing blue today, inviting more butterflies into the garden.
A stroll
One day last week I was sitting at my desk working when a monarch caterpillar caught my attention going for a stroll up the window. It was a great distraction from writing articles. The caterpillar found its resting area under the windowsill for its chrysalis.
Both of my giant milkweed are crawling with caterpillars of every instar. My butterfly house has a tremendous amount of activity from caterpillars eating, to creating their chrysalis and emerging. It has been a tremendous few months for these lovely caterpillars and butterflies.
