emergence

i have been waiting to see this. the monarch butterfly emergence, or eclosion, from the chrysalis.

this morning i got to watch 3 of them emerge.

i did not get my camera in time to get him actually pushing out of the chrysalis - but got these pictures immediately after he slipped free.

when they first emerge from the chrysalis, their wings are tiny and wrinkled. their abdomen is swollen and full of liquid. they pump liquid from their abdomen into their wings.

a few minutes later the wings are fully expanded - but they are soft and vulnerable. they hang vertically for a few hours until their wings are hardened and this butterfly is ready to fly !

so far... i have 3 girls and 1 boy. i have 9 chrysalis left.

this is their fourth, and last, stage of life... the butterfly.

baby birds

everything is alive in the garden... even the baby birds are hatching now.

chrysalis

i ended up with 14 caterpillars this round. i have a few left hanging in 'j position' and the rest are already a chrysalis.

i had a terrible fatality - something i hadn't seen before - one of the caterpillars fell half way through becoming a chrysalis. i don't know why... maybe he did not attach himself securely. it was very sad.

so in a 10-14 days i will start releasing 13 beautiful monarch butterflies.

this is their third stage of life... the chrysalis, or pupa.

j position

after munching on milkweed for about 2 weeks a few of my caterpillars have climbed up to a safe place and have assumed 'j position'.

they attach themselves with silk and hold in this position for a day or two before starting the process of metamorphosis.

male or female ?

the top picture is a female.. the bottom picture is a male.

the female has thicker black wing veins.

the male has a black dot on the lower wing.

the black dot releases a scent, a pheromone, for attracting females. 

full house

it got very quiet here. i thought they had all moved on and the season was over.

i ended up raising and releasing 15 beautiful monarch butterflies.

10 girls.
3 boys.
2 unknown (before i knew how to tell them apart).







2 days ago i found 3 caterpillars out in the garden on some milkweed.

the next day i found 4 more.

and this morning i found 3 more.

i have a full house now again.

watching them this morning chomp away at the milkweed leaves.

caterpillars

learning more about these fascinating creatures...

they have three body parts.
they have a head, and a body with a thorax and an abdomen.

each thoracic segment has a pair of jointed, or true legs. the abdominal segments have false legs, or prolegs. there are five pairs of prolegs which have tiny hooks on them that hold them onto a leaf. they look like little suction cups.