Monarch Monday – Week 4
If you missed Weeks 1, 2 and 3, you can catch up here:
For the first few weeks of his life, Mr. Monarch Caterpillar has done little but eat, eat, and eat. But sometime Thursday afternoon, he decided to move on to the next phase of his life. So he crawled away from his milkweed leaves, up the side of his pet carrier, and onto the underside of the lid. He formed a little silk pad there and Thursday night, he gripped the pad with his toes and hung head downward.
When I got home from work Friday evening, he was still hanging there. He was complaining about his blood rushing to his head and having a headache. But when I checked on him a half hour later, he had shed his caterpillar skin and in its place was a beautiful pale green chrysalis with delicate golden spots.
Mr. Monarch’s old caterpillar body parts will transform into an adult butterfly within his chrysalis in the next 10 days.
Stay tuned, by next Monday we may see a beautiful Monarch butterfly.
(See Week 5 here. )
(Also See Monarch Butterfly Update)
(See also: A Monarch Butterfly Is Born)
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How interesting! I have never seen this before and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
And it’s going faster than I remember the last time I did this. Amazing how fast he is growing up.
This is so kewl, thanks for sharing with us.
You’re welcome Sharon. Thanks!
I, too , am enjoying the front row seat to his metamorphosis, many thanks.
You’re very welcome Lynda!
I am so excited I can’t wait. This is so cool!
Thanks Tina!
You all are sure it is a he? How can you tell?
Headache – I’ll thinking it must be a she…
Ha ha. You may be right. I have no idea whether it’s a he or a she. I figure by calling it a he, I have a 50/50 chance of being right. When he/she becomes a butterfly, we’ll be able to determine it’s sex then.
This is one of the neatest things I have ever seen. Thank you so much for the journey and sharing your photos with us.
You’re quite welcome Robin!
Oh, how cool. Thank you, Suzanne… I’ve never seen this before either. Hope you’re doing well.
You’re welcome Justina. We are doing great. Hope you are doing better. Thinking about you every day.
The chrysalis is really quite pretty. I have to wonder how it gets there. What the process is. Wouldn’t the be neat to get a small movie of it happening. This is really interesting, Thanks.
I think it’s one of the miracles of nature. How a worm can turn into a butterfly is beyond me and just so fascinating.
Have you visited Lawrence, KS where you can tag monarchs before they head off to Mexico for the winter? It is very interesting.
http://www.monarchwatch.org/wetlands/
That would be so much fun. Another miracle how they can fly to Mexico and then come back again.
I can’t believe how fast they do this! I am amazed!