Monarch Monday – Week 4

If you missed Weeks 1, 2 and 3, you can catch up here:

Monarch Monday – Week 1

Monarch Monday – Week 2

Monarch Monday – Week 3

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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Suzanne

Cattle, corn, wheat, beans, mud, snow, ice, and drought. Plenty of fresh air and quiet. Our life is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous, but never boring.

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19 Responses

  1. Kathy says:

    How interesting! I have never seen this before and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

  2. Sharon Thompson says:

    This is so kewl, thanks for sharing with us.

  3. Lynda M O says:

    I, too , am enjoying the front row seat to his metamorphosis, many thanks.

  4. Tina says:

    I am so excited I can’t wait. This is so cool!

  5. Chester's Mom says:

    You all are sure it is a he? How can you tell?
    Headache – I’ll thinking it must be a she…

    • Suzanne says:

      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.

  6. RobinS says:

    This is one of the neatest things I have ever seen. Thank you so much for the journey and sharing your photos with us.

  7. Oh, how cool. Thank you, Suzanne… I’ve never seen this before either. Hope you’re doing well.

  8. Doe of Mi. says:

    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.

    • Suzanne says:

      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.

  9. SuzanneC says:

    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/

  10. I can’t believe how fast they do this! I am amazed!

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