Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY PICTURES #105, 2 by vitrsna

vitrsna wrote:
The first Monarch of the winter season eclosed yesterday, a beautiful little girl.

You will notice that this one is attached to a large bowl shaped glass. I found this little pillar wandering around with very large antennae and little tiny body and brought it inside because it didn't seem to be eating enough (although there was abundant food). I use these glasses, line them with cotton handkerchiefs and plop the pillar in there with fresh food every day. This little one did not want the leaves that i first brought, so i tried flower buds and the pillar devoured them one by one. I guessed if he had a good appetite, he must be otherwise healthy. He power ate until he pupated. I have never seen a caterpillar eat so much so fast and soon he was looking fairly normal. I found another caterpillar wandering around looking hungry and in need of a skin shed so i brought that one in too and fed him twice a day with a variety of fresh flower buds, leaves, and seed pods (in a separate glass bowl). You can see the green chrysalis attached to the same glass. Although this one was raised in his own glass, he chose to pupate closer to his sister (as it turns out). Now i have two chrysalises each on a different glass. The third one i did not feed but found him frantically looking for just the right spot to pupate...he was late and his DNA was rushing him to find a spot and settle down. I tried putting him on a couple of "safe" bushes but he rejected them so i brought him into the house and put him on the underside of a glass with a handkerchief hanging over the sides and he settled right down and started making the silky glue that would hold his "hoof". By the next day, he was in a "J" position.

I have seen this problem with caterpillars too late in finding just the right place to pupate a few times so i recognize these "frantic" symptoms. I once found a caterpillar wriggling toward me half enclosed in silk. There was nothing i could do for him at that time to help him survive.

About 4 days prior to expecting the butterflies to eclose from any chrysalises i might have in the house, i move them outside to the patio table where they can eclose outside and freely proceed with their new lives as a butterflies. Out of somewhere between 15 to 20 caterpillars total from this first brood, i raised 2 inside due to special circumstances. The remainder that i observed seemed to be doing very well on their own in their natural environment.