Framingham Nature Blog - From Monarch Caterpillar...

On a very rainy walk home from school on September 1st, I noticed a fat squiggle on the underside of a milkweed leaf in someones garden. I decided to take it home and attempt to care for it and learn about it during metamorphosis.

I am keeping it in a small plastic container on my desk. This should be interesting. by the time i got back from school, the milkweed leaf i found it on was munched down to a stem. It was on the lid of the box. I added in A handful of Swamp and Common Milkweed. The only two plants a monarch caterpillar can digest. Monarchs are specialists and eat only milkweed, which they can absorb the poison from, store it in their skin, and become poisons to birds. Most butterflies and moths main predator.

Monarch caterpillars eat so much because it is the only source of protein they will ever consume. Adult Monarchs only eat nectar, which contains almost no protein. They need lots of protein though, for reproduction. This means caterpillars have to save up enough protein for their extreme growth, metamorphosis, molting, and a several thousand mile journey to mexico. Adults only drink nectar for it's sugar. They need the energy for migration.

Monarch butterflies have 4 generations a year. 3 of them only live for a month or two, during the summer. a mom monarch from mexico will fly up into the US, and have offspring there and die. the next generation will live very short lives, and have offspring in the US as well. the next 2 generations will do the same. the 4th generation will hatch in early fall, and will migrate as adults to mexico, to overwinter, where it will then fly north in the spring, repeating the cycle.

I think my caterpillar is in the 4th, and longest generation, meaning it will have to fly all the way to the Mountains In Mexico, and return to reproduce and die in early spring.

On the morning of the 5th, the caterpillar was hanging from it's rear end by a chunk of silk. It was finally starting to transform.

SIDE VIEW

TOP VIEW

Unfortunately, I never saw what happened in between due to a trip to Boston and a 2-hour driving lesson, but when I got home and finally checked on it, it looked like a totally different organism.

The cocoon had changed again, the next morning, as it was much skinnier, smoother, darker, and harder. Try to compare the photo above with the photo below. The Monarch was still a chrysalis 8 days later.

On the morning of September 15th, the chrysalis was tinted black and orange. It was fully metamorphosed when i got home from school. An adult (Butterfly) was hanging from my wall. I scooped it up, and placed it on the windowsill. Next stop, the Oyamel Forest, Mexico. It took off as soon as a small breeze hit it.