MONARCH BUTTERFLY WATCH- PART 3

I have been watching the crysalis for almost two weeks now. All of the caterpillars completely disappeared about a week and a half ago-I cannot find their hiding places for their crysali, but I know they are in my garden. Several days ago, I saw a monarch fluttering up from the daisies I have (still blooming), then disappeared into the woods nearby.

Every day I check my crysalis in the morning on the way out to work, and in the evening when I get home. This past weekend, I noticed a distinct change-if you look closely at the photos, you can actually see the "mosaic" pattern of the monarch's wing inside! How amazing! This is truly a miracle to contemplate-it is such an amazing thing to see, this fat striped little caterpillar has been in there for almost two weeks and like magic-he is becoming a gorgeous butterfly which is going to emerge any day and then fly thousands of miles south for the winter. I can barely believe it!

I know that this crysalis is very close to opening up-I am so afraid that I will miss it, since I do have to go to work every day! Today I got home and as I stepped onto the sidewalk, I saw a monarch perched on top of the daisies, opening and closing her(?) wings. I could tell that she had just emerged as her wings were still all crinkly looking, not entirely opened up. I offered my hand and she crawled right aboard, allowing me to take a couple of close-ups with her wings open. I gently let her go-she fluttered down to the ground, her wings still not quite ready to support her-she crawled up the plants and perched there for another photo. I hope she survives her long journey! She did not come from the crysalis I have been watching, though-that is still hanging there, but looking about to pop open any minute now. There must be many of them tucked away somewhere under the daisies, there had to have been at least 50 caterpillars, so I expect to see lots of butterflies taking flight in the next week or so!

MONARCH BUTTERFLY WATCH PART 2- CHRYSALIS!

Today, about a week after I first spotted the caterpillars, they have almost completely exfloiated the milkweed-I was becoming concerned that they would have no place to attach themselves to form each pale green chrysalis, but I was excited to find the first one today when I got home from work, tucked on a leaf down among the branches. There could be more, but I could only find this one so far. From what I have learned, I think the butterfly should emerge in about 10 days. I plan to keep a close watch and hope to get a photo or two (hopefully this will happen when I am not at work!

MONARCH BUTTERFLY WATCH 2010

A couple of days after Labor Day, I was poking around one of the bushes in my flowerbed taking photos of a praying mantis who had been hanging around in a small fir tree for the past month. She (I think a "she" due to the brownish color) was sitting on a branch and apparently watching me, as her head was turning as I homed in to get a photo of her. After the flash went off, she kind of reared up towards me-a little scary, but I am sure that was her purpose-"go away you person with that bright light in my face"! I tickled her underbelly to get her to move a little, but she stood her ground. Next, since I had to give the flowers a little water, I let the water gently shower on her, and she just kind of flattened herself on the branch and appeared to almost tuck her head down to avoid the "raindrops". I decided to leave her alone to her hunting and went on to checking out the rest of the garden, intending on getting some of the debris of faded and dried up flowers left from the summer pruned off and cleaned up.

Out of the corner of my eye, something oddly colorful drew my attention to a small leafy plant that I was unable to identify as one that I had ever put there. It was a very pretty caterpillar-bright stripes and little black feet...crawling along on this leaf, intent on eating as much of it as possible. Then I noticed not one more but at least 25 or more of them in several sizes, all quietly chomping away on their respective leaves-almost one caterpillar for every leaf! Wow! So then I looked at my other plants to see if they were on them-but no, they were concentrated only on this one plant. Odd.

My next step after getting some photos of them was to look them up in a reference book I have, and found that they are the caterpillars of the monarch butterfly! And the reason they were only on this one mystery plant is that they ONLY eat milkweed-this is a milkweed that must have been self-planted sometime earlier in the summer-I had been pruning it down thinking it was phlox, since it is kind of in the middle of a patchof purple phlox. I keep the phlox cut back until late July and it forces more blooms in August. Evidently pruning the milkweed kept it from forming those big seed pods that I used to love to pry open when I was a kid.

So now I am excited-I have monarch butterfly caterpillars in my garden! My next step was to look into their life cycle to see what they are doing here this late in the season. It turns out that this generation (the last of 4 born each year) is the one that will become the monarchs that migrate to Mexico to overwinter, then return in the early spring, lay eggs and die. (The first generation comes from these eggs-they hatch as caterpillars, eat until full grown, attach to a leaf and make a chrysalis from silk they spin around themselves, and a few weeks later come out as butterflies). This generation will shortly lay eggs and then die, these eggs become generation 2, then will come generation 3. The only butterflies that migrate are generation 4, born in September.

It is truly a miracle how these butterflies are able to migrate to Mexico, spend the winter and come back to start the cycle over again. The real mystery is that when they go to their winter grounds, they go to the exact same trees to live in year after year-even though each year's migration has never been there before!

Back to my garden....I am posting photos now as I watch daily for the metamorphosis- I will keep posting photos here as things happen, I am hoping to be able to see them emerge as butterflies!