Monarch Caterpillar

Danaus plexippus

I love monarchs! Several years ago, I managed to raise several monarch caterpillars and photograph a couple of them changing from caterpillar to chrysalis and one from chrysalis to butterfly.

I found this one (and two others) on my hike to the top of Shell Ridge to inspect changes since the fire a few months ago. The milkweed recovered right away, and today a lot of it had been eaten (presumably by monarch caterpillars). I took three home with me and set them up in my "butterfly pavilion"--more on it later. I will try to catch them morphing in a few days and then weeks. I don't feel bad about capturing them, as they have a better chance of surviving to be butterflies in captivity than they would in the wild.

I am fascinated by the life cycle of butterflies, but especially of the monarch. A couple of years ago I went to Mexico to the site where the butterflies from the central North American continent overwinter. There were literally millions of them, and it was something I had always wanted to see. You can read more about their annual migration (which takes several generations) here if you're interested.