Another female monarch butterfly hatched in our butterfly house this morning. We have had tons of success lately with raising caterpillars and adding to the monarch population.
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Tag Archives: monarch release
A male born
This morning a male (two spots on lower wing) monarch butterfly emerged successfully in our butterfly house.
In southern Florida the monarch butterfly can go through as many as six broods.
The flight of the monarch is unique to its kind as it flaps its wings vigorously before gliding. This male worked its wings doing this exact motion before landing on a tree nearby.
Beauty released
A female monarch butterfly hatched in our butterfly house this morning, climbing our total to 157 successfully raised caterpillars to butterflies.
Recently we have had some unhealthy caterpillars, who created their chrysalis, but did not completely hatch. The horrible thing is you do not know the caterpillar has been infested, until the chrysalis does not make it.
The tachinid fly, which unfortunately is one of abundance in our back butterfly garden, is an awful predator of the caterpillar. Thankfully they are not year round residents, we have noticed. The host of the tachinid fly, which has red eyes, are plant-eating insects – caterpillars being among that list. The fly can lay an egg on the backend of a caterpillar, or directly into its body in a weak spot of the exoskeleton. When the embryo develops the maggot hatches and burrows into the caterpillar.
So, when we have a successful hatch, my excitement goes through the roof, as this caterpillar was spared, due to us bringing it into our butterfly house in time. Like I have said before, when raising caterpillars you see first hand what they experience in nature. The cycle of life in nature . . .
