Last year I penned a post about Monarch Butterflies in our garden. They are back again this year. The caterpillars have eaten almost all of our milkweed plants. Today, I saw one lone caterpillar cleaning up the scraps.
Caterpillar eating milkweed
Even more exciting is that, when I was sweeping the front porch, I spotted a chrysalis on the side of the house. This one being on the opposite side that I spotted one last year. There are also the remains of two chrysalises where I had spotted the one last year.
Remains of chrysalisChrysalis
Every day is a little different in the garden. I have to remind myself to be more observant on a daily basis or I could easily miss the little things that blend in so well. As always, Happy Gardening!
Last week, I published the happy, exciting news of caterpillar sightings in our garden. I even found a chrysalis on the side of our house. I had never spotted a chrysalis before. How exciting!
The very next morning, I checked on the chrysalis. Everything looked the same. I was intending to check the chrysalis frequently, as I did not want to miss out on the butterfly as it was developing and breaking free to fly away. My son and I left the house for a few hours and when we returned I decided I should take a picture of the chrysalis. This I decided to do every day so that I would have a record of the butterflies emergence.
As I went outside, I noticed first the side of the house had been splattered with something. Then I looked at the chrysalis. Only the top part of it remained. At first, I thought it hatched while we were out. Then I realized it should have changed first to a dark color and then to a clear encasement. It was too soon in the process to have fully developed. Something had gone wrong. Had something gotten a hold of the chrysalis before the caterpillar had time to complete the process?
We will never know exactly what happened to the chrysalis. Unfortunately, things like this happen in nature all the time. It is hard for animals to survive in the wild. Predators, weather, lack of food, all sorts of things put animals at risk. My poor little Monarch.
There are still caterpillars on our plants. Perhaps I will be lucky enough to find another chrysalis in the yard and hope to see that one turn into a beautiful Monarch butterfly. I wish them all good luck.
It is a sunny July day in So Cal and we have spotted caterpillars on one of our plants. These are not the brown fuzzy caterpillars I enjoyed watching as a child. These caterpillars are stripped yellow, white, and black and will turn into Monarch Butterflies.
chrysalis
The caterpillars are busily eating away at the milkweed on our plants. However, I spotted another interesting little something on my way in the front door. Attached to the side of the house is a chrysalis. That means we have a butterfly forming inside this chrysalis. The caterpillars crawl away from the plant when it is time to form the chrysalis in a safe environment. According to research, the butterfly is developing inside the chrysalis for 9 to 14 days. Since I do not know how long this chrysalis has been there, I will have to keep an eye on it’s development. How exciting!
our butterfly plant
There are a few Monarchs fluttering about the garden now. It is nice to know that soon there will be more. As with the birds in our garden, if you give them what they need they will come.
Another Day with Julie 