First Pupa

I haven't been pursuing the monarch rearing as enthusiastically as I have in past years. I just don't seem to have the same excitement about it. I tend to be like that. I hurl myself at passions, interests, and hobbies and then often my interest wanes a bit. Sometimes I come back to past pursuits as I did with stitching, and when I knit again I really enjoy it.

Anyway, I have about 10 larvae on the go. (Larva - singular, larvae - plural) I may have even brought in another egg today when I was clipping the top off a milkweed plant to bring in to feed the herd. This morning one larva was on the ceiling of the Caterpillar Castle getting ready for its 'j' formation.

This is a pic of the Caterpillar Castle from a previous year. In the jar a green water reservoir can be seen. Basically, I cut the tender top section off the top of a milkweed plant and jam the stem into the reservoir. It stays upright in the jar and the leaves stay really fresh. The larvae seem to like this setup as it seems to replicate what they'd experience outdoors in the wild - minus predators, of course.

This evening I checked and it had formed the chrysalis (pupa). At this point I write the date on a little piece of masking tape with its number (this was #1) and stick it on the outside top of the castle right on top of the chrysalis. This pupa hatched from its egg (which I found on June 30 and brought inside) into a larva on July 4 so it took 15 days in the larval stage. That is about the longest time it takes. I figure because our house is air-conditioned, it slows things down for them.

The closer larva appears to have made its silken 'button' which has attached its hind end to the ceiling. Its longer fore antennae can be seen at its other end. Probably tomorrow it will hang in the 'j' formation, then pupate as well. The other two chubbier larvae will probably do this as well. The smaller one at the back is just up there waiting to shed its skin and grow bigger. Then it will crawl down to where the leaves are and complete its last couple (out of 5) larval stages. Then it will crawl back up to the ceiling and pupate.

These guys are in the other castle. Three are visible and one is munching away inside one of the leaves.

When the caterpillars get to this stage, they each eat one leaf per day. I have a great crop of milkweed in the garden this year so should be able to meet their dietary needs until the last one pupates.

#1 will emerge from its chrysalis (eclose) in about 2 weeks as a fully formed adult. In the pupa state there is a way to determine the sex but it requires a bit more effort on my part that I'm not really up to at the moment. I'll just have to wait until it emerges to determine whether its a male or a female (easily done by the naked eye).

Until last week, I hadn't seen many monarchs flying around at all. With the hot weather all that changed. Out in the wild, they have about a 3% success rate of making it from egg to adult. In my kitchen it's about 97%.

When I release these butterflies, they will lay eggs and when those eggs complete metamorphosis, they will be the ones to fly down to Mexico beginning at the end of August or so.