two boys

it's been getting colder during the days now, and really chilly at night... but i still have 14 chrysalis waiting to emerge.

i brought the 'castle' inside to keep them warm, and help them along.

this morning i released two beautiful boys.

108 butterflies

i have raised and released 108 butterflies so far this year.

fly away

releasing eight beautiful butterflies...

back to life

i saw the most amazing thing this morning...

i woke up and was cleaning out the castle and getting fresh milkweed for my caterpillars.

i have my milkweed leaf stalks in jars of water to keep them fresh. then i saw that this poor little guy had fallen in the water - and he had drowned... so sad.

i remembered i had just read something about this...

put the caterpillar on a pile of salt.

i did that... and i was amazed when a few minutes later he started moving. then started walking around !

okay ! it worked !!

when a caterpillar falls in water, it's spiracles close over and the caterpillar goes into a state of torpor. the salt draws any water out of the spiracles and trachea.

fascinating.

hungry

thirty one hungry mouths to feed. never had this many.

they are 2nd instars - less than a 1/4" long now. they will grow 3000 times their size before becoming a chrysalis.

hello world...

first born in this batch.

i have 34 eggs right now.

it's going to be crazy once they all start hatching !

more eggs

found more eggs out in garden today.

i have to get a butterfly net... not for butterflies... for wasps. i see them out there all over the milkweed. they are eating the eggs.

i collected these few eggs - but i know there are more out there - i just can't find them. she was out there for quite a while fluttering around laying eggs.

i'm having a bit of a dilemma as far as having to kill the wasps...

happy

what a happy little fella i stumbled upon in the garden tonight.

taking flight

two more beautiful girls take flight this morning.

first flight

enjoying a hawaiian punch soaked cotton ball before she takes her first flight.

14kt gold and jade

the monarch chrysalis is so beautiful. chrysalis is a greek word meaning golden crown.

here are a few reasons for the gold dots...

camouflage - they reflect colors of the surroundings and break up the shape of the chrysalis

warning  - somehow the coloration would fend off predators

protection - they filter particular wavelengths of light which might be harmful to the monarchs

nothing - no function, but just the result of something else in the cuticle

the more i read, it seems to be, that they are points of entry for air entering the chrysalis.

whatever the reason for them... they look like 14kt gold and jade to me... just a beautiful jewel.

transformed

the transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis is amazing.

the first change is the tentacles will start to shrivel up. the caterpillar is hanging in j position, pumping their body. their skin will start to shrivel up too. there is a green tinge to their body.

and then the skin splits.

it starts at the back of the head and moves up the caterpillars back. the caterpillar is twisting and turning, trying to release itself from it's old skin. it becomes more and more shriveled up as it wriggles free. it even sheds all its facial features.

the 4th picture down is the most fascinating to me. since it was attached to the silk pad with its back legs - and it won't have them soon - a little stick, called a cremaster - pokes out from inside it's body. the cremaster searches for the silk pad and attaches itself to the pad. after it has done this, it can then fully release all of it's old body parts. this is so important because if it does not attach to the pad properly, it would fall to the ground and die, since at this point, it is very delicate - it's a suspended bag of fluid. i had never seen this happen before - but i was looking for it this time... and sure enough - there it was. the cremaster.

he will then twist and turn until all of the old skin drops off, readjusting to it's new body form.

and then it starts... the end of life as a caterpillar, and the beginning of the third stage of life - the chrysalis.

this all happens in a few minutes.

hanging around

once they are ready to become a chrysalis, they crawl up to a safe place and hang motionless in 'j position' for about a day. they climb to the top of the castle and attach themselves with hooks that on are their back legs to a silk pad.

out in the wild it could be up to 40 feet away from the milkweed they were feeding on.

:(

one of my caterpillars died.

of the 10 i was raising - three of them are already chrysalis - three have climbed up the castle and will probably go in 'j position' by tomorrow - and three are in their 5th instar and will probably climb up by tomorrow too.

then there was the little guy... he wasn't growing. he was still in his 3rd instar although they were all born a day or so apart.

i kept watching him - wondering why he wasn't growing... i was rooting for him...

i guess they aren't all going to make it - as sad as that is. i am grateful for the other nine healthy ones.

i have had a few other deaths. i have a spot in the garden, marked by a little crystal, where i bury them. i put some fresh verbena there for him... for the butterfly he would have been.

spiracles

the little holes on the side of a caterpillar, and butterflies, are called spiracles. they breathe through these holes. the spiracles are connected to a network of airtubes that carry oxygen through their bodies.

click on any picture to enlarge it 

good morning

beautiful day in sunny southern california.

rise and shine and eat some milkweed.

moving out

i got all the babies moved out of the 'nursery' and outside into their 'castle'.

they all seem to be adjusting well... although it is a little harder to keep track of them now. the smaller ones like to hide out under and in between leaves.

i got a picture of this guy right after he molted. you can see his old skin behind him.

day four

today is day four for these little guys.

they are now in their 2nd instar. they are still so tiny. about 1/4" long. their tentacles have grown... and their bright yellow, black and white stripes are visible.

i am caring for 10 babies right now - and they are definitely becoming way more active and curious.

i will keep them inside for a few more days before i transfer them outside to live in their 'caterpillar castle'.

they will be caterpillars for about 14 days.

creeper

well... look who i found creeping around my backyard this morning  :)

as a caterpillar grows, it molts it's skin 5 times before it becomes a chrysalis. each stage of growth is called an 'instar' -  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th instar.

this guy seems to already be in his 5th instar - he must be pretty stealth to go unnoticed for so long.

day two

 ... eating and pooping. i can already see the stripes.

the two horns on the top of his head, and near his end, are the beginning growth of the tentacles.