It’s been amazing to see the amount of monarch caterpillars in the gardens. Even more amazing are the chrysalis that are popping up in and around the garden. Some caterpillars have crawled a good distance to make a chrysalis on my garage doors, to the side of the house, and of course on posts in the garden.
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.
Seriosuly, does it get better than this? A monarch caterpillar conversing with a monarch butterfly on a giant milkweed. Nature is the best, butterfly gardens even better.
This morning, we had two monarch butterflies emerge and released into the front garden. Both of them were female, and both fluttered to a different destination among the plants to rest a little longer. One a few times.
We have taken a break from raising monarch caterpillars for the last few months until my husband spotted a caterpillar crawling up our lanai screen looking for a place to make its chrysalis. I put the caterpillar in our butterfly house and it instantly found a branch to make its J and create its green chrysalis. Yesterday a beautiful male monarch successfully emerged and was released in our garden.
He chose a zinnia to rest on and then a red sage before taking a longer flight out of the garden.
This beauty marks No. 429 that we have raised and released.
The monarch butterfly’s scientific name is Danaus Plexippus, which means “sleepy transformation” in Greek. The male has two black spots in the center of its lower wings and are larger in size than the female. According to the National Wildlife Federation, the spots are scent glands, which help the males attract females.
This beautiful female monarch was busy laying eggs on my giant milkweed this morning.
