Tag Archives: monarch caterpillar

Munch away

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Lovely

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The gardens have been a monarch paradise these last few weeks. The garden has every stage of life from eggs to butterflies.

For the Sunshine State, they are seasonal in Northern Florida with low numbers during the spring before exploding by the millions during the late summer and fall. In central and southern Florida, the monarch butterflies breed all year.

According to the National Wildlife Federation, the monarchs are broken down into eastern and western populations divided by the Rocky Mountains. It states that the eastern population is the largest. This population migrates northward. In the spring they leave Mexico and migrate north into Texas and the Southern Plains, through the Northern Plains, Midwest and into the Great Lakes area. And by late summer the monarchs expand into Canada, eastward from its central migratory corridor of the United States through the northeast and southeast states.

The National Wildlife Federation states that the late summer, last generation of monarchs that emerges will delay sexual maturity for migration. This migratory generation can live up to eight months, compared to the typical few weeks.

It’s fascinating to learn about the monarch’s incredible migratory patterns. In Southwest Florida we are blessed with these beauties visiting the garden daily during the winter months as the weather never dips to unbearable temperatures.

Today, similar to many others, the nectar plant of choice is the red penta. We also had a female monarch emerge in the butterfly house, the one that is on the same milkweed plant as the monarch caterpillar.