The life story of the monarch

Here are two monarchs mating. The male is the top one (see the little black spot).

I was surprised to see an egg on this very small milkweed plant. I put bricks around the plant to protect it, thinking it was unusual. I soon discovered that it wasn't unusual at all at least in my yard. Perhaps they prefer the tender leaves of this young plant and assume that the plant will grow faster than the caterpillar can it eat. Since this was the only milkweed within a baby catepillar's traveling distance, though, it seems a risky strategy. I later brought this and other eggs inside to raise.

Here's a monarch "baby" (i.e. a first instar) that has just hatched. It's very small - I took the photo through a magnifying glass. It's getting ready to eat its eggshell. As environmental designers say, in nature "Waste = Food!"

The caterpillar goes through five stages called instars. In other words, it gets too big for its skin, sheds that one, and then it can get bigger. The old skin is that volcano-like shape at the end. If you look closely you can also see that its head is still not "hardened" into its usual color.

The caterpillar creates a silk pad with his mouth end. It will later turn around and attach itself to this pad.

The caterpillar forms a "j" shape. This one has hung around for a while (the hotter it is, the shorter the time) and is soon going to pupate. How do I know? Look at its droopy tentacles - I assume that means that the incipient butterfly inside has already detached from the soon to be discarded caterpillar skin.