Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Monarch Butterflies

A few years ago I posted about a movie we saw about Monarch butterflies at the science museum (here). 

The whole life cycle of these amazing animals in very special and this year we finally got around to buying milkweed.  Milkweed is the only plant the Monarch will lay their eggs on and the only plant the caterpillars will eat to grow big.  

It has been an amazing process to watch!  All the way from the eggs to the tiny caterpillars and then seeing them get big by totally ravaging the milkweed.  Some we helped a bit by protecting them in our butterfly tent and feeding them until they went into their cocoon.   The cocoon itself it beautiful too, green with a little gold rim.  One evening while having dinner we saw one of the caterpillars transform itself into the cocoon. It all happens in a few minutes.  We have also seen the butterflies comes out of the cocoon.  This is slightly slower and they need some hours to dry after they emerge.

So special to witness this!


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