Family

Monarch Butterflies

November 1, 2022 /

I had no idea at all, of the absolutely incredible journey of a Monarch Butterfly until this past summer.

A neighbor gave me a newly hatched baby caterpillar and an egg. That was all it took to start me thinking of a fun summer project for my little people!

My quest was to have three caterpillars successfully form a chrysalis, which I could give to each one of my three children, so their children could then watch it hatch into a butterfly.

Pretty grandiose idea I know, but I was going to give it a try.

First I needed to find out everything I could about this mysterious creature…..

Monarch butterflies actually go thru four stages during one life cycle and four generations in one year.

The four stages are the egg, the larvae or caterpillar, the pupa or chrysalis and the adult butterfly. The four generations are four DIFFERENT butterflies, each going thru the four stages in one year, until the whole process starts again.

I think for timeline purposes, I am going to start with generation 4(you will understand why later).

Generation 4 butterflies are born in September or October and MIGRATE to warmer climates in Mexico and California. Here they will live for six to eight MONTHS until it is time to fly north.

Now I will start from the beginning…..

In February and March the butterflies in Mexico and California, come out of hibernation, find a mate, fly north and east, to begin laying their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. This is stage 1, generation 1, of a new year for the monarch butterfly.

In March and April the eggs will hatch in four to six days into baby caterpillars and grow exponentially, eating nothing but milkweed leaves.

This process is truly amazing as they grow so FAST!

By the end of approximately two weeks the caterpillar is fully grown. It attaches itself to a stem or leaf and forms a chrysalis.

For the next 10 to 14 days it is undergoing the remarkable metamorphosis of becoming a beautiful butterfly.

Generation 1 has been born and will live for about two to six weeks, at which time she will lay her eggs

before dying, giving way to generation 2.

The second generation of butterflies are born in May and June, with the third generation being born in July and August. Each going thru the same process as generation 1, until we get to generation 4 and the whole adventure starts again.

Four generations, with four stages, all in one year. It is astounding!

I started my project with one baby caterpillar and one egg, placing them together in one mason jar, which I covered with a screen.

The little black dots are caterpillar poo!

Replenishing the milkweed daily, we discovered our egg had in fact hatched.

Enter mason jar number two.

They are eating and growing like crazy! You truly cannot believe how fast all this happens.

Harvesting milkweed leaves for our “toddlers”, we find another baby caterpillar.

Mason jar number three is now on the counter.

I should probably tell you that our caterpillars are generation 3, as all this is happening in the middle to end of July.

By August 1 there were 2 chrysalis and I am anxiously awaiting the third, because we leave for South Dakota(another blog post) on August 4.

It was fun to watch as I had not seen the other two form. This little guy climbed to the top of the jar, attaching itself to the screen and formed a “J”. It was actually spinning around.

And it happened!

Three chrysalis.

I carefully packaged them all in a box, which we took to my daughters for observation on the day we left for South Dakota.

Upon our return home, all chrysalis were intact.

I left one jar with her, gave one to my youngest son and kept the last one to monitor at our house, for my oldest sons children.

Everyday we anxiously waited and were not disappointed!

In a blink, you have a butterfly!

The only clue is that the chrysalis becomes transparent and you can actually see the butterfly inside.

This happened to me and I mistakenly thought it had died, because instead of being green, it was black.

Walking away and coming back to a butterfly was astonishing. Next time I will video tape it, as I will know what is coming.

We let their wings dry for 24 hours before letting them go.

This one happens to be a female. How you can tell, is that males have a small black dot on their hind wings, which females do not.

We all got to watch a baby caterpillar grow and change into a chrysalis, turn into a butterfly and release back into nature.

Such a fun project and so easy!

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