A perfect Monarch Butterfly male emerged from its chrysalis today and flew off to its butterfly life. Scroll through each picture, below, to read the story as it unfolds. I've cooled it, on the Monarch raising front, this Summer. There are several reasons for this, most of them practical. I'm away a lot and not in a position to care for the caterpillars on a constant basis. When the season began, I didn't have a lot of Swan Plants, due to a big clear out and repositioning of plants at the end of last season. We're having a very hot, dry, Summer in Northland. We collect our own water from the rain and store it in a 9000 litre tank. 9000L isn't a lot (most people have a 20,000L tank) and when it doesn't rain (as it hasn't for 6 weeks or more) we must be sparing with our water usage. We can buy water, yes, but right now there's a long waiting list of those wanting to buy water and even the water source (a nearby river) is running very low. Unfortunately my plants suffer in these conditions. Now that the season is in full swing, and conditions are dry, my swan plants are not in good condition and are quite aphid-ridden. We are diverting water from the washing machine, to a separate tank for water to hose the garden with, but even then I have to be sparing with garden water. Having said all that, despite the difficult conditions, over the December 2016 - February 2017 period I have successfully raised and released 36 Monarch butterflies. All were perfect and beautiful. Click on each picture to see a larger view.
Are you up for a dose of cuteness?
What is cuter than a Koala with a Monarch butterfly male cutting in on the picture? REF: You Tube, Symbio Wildlife Park, Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia Check out Symbio Wildlife Park..... Our last butterfly for the season emerged from its chrysalis yesterday afternoon. A male.
As with the female that flew off a couple of days ago, this one had been in the chrysalis for 27 days. He slid out of it perfectly and was perfect. We kept him in overnight, because it was raining and today it rained too. But today by lunch time he was itching to get away, so I took him out into the light rain on my hand. He did a few flicks of his wings and then off he flew, up into a tree to begin his butterfly life. All good. But there are plenty more Monarchs around. It's as if Winter never happened for them this year. Today I saw many Monarch eggs on Swan Plants, and even a tiny caterpillar just out of its egg and eating the egg shell, not to mention at least 10 caterpillars in several different stages of growth. You can read about those in my next post, tomorrow. Here's our girl again. I photographed her today in the sun. She emerged from her chrysalis last evening at about 9pm. She did everything perfectly and she was perfect. Given that she was 27 days in the chrysalis, because it is mid-Winter here in New Zealand and all and every butterfly process is ideally in diapause, it all went so well. Today dawned fine, but then we had many showers on and off, so I kept her inside until the day warmed up somewhat and the rain slowed. Mid afternoon, when it seemed there would be a good length of sun before the next shower, I put her outside on a silver Cineraria plant that was under cover. She crawled about on the leaves for about 20 minutes then suddenly was up up and away. A perfect first flight and off she flew to her perfect butterfly life. And here we are watching TV on a wet Saturday evening, in Opua, when this beautiful lady turned up. She has been in the chrysalis for 27 days and is absolutely perfect** How really magical. **It's mid Winter in New Zealand and not at all the usual time for Monarch Butterflies to emerge from their chrysalis's. We're having a remarkably mild Winter in many parts of New Zealand, especially in the north. As you may know, our Monarchs don't migrate to anywhere during Winter, rather they set themselves into a calmed state called diapause and roost together in clusters to wait it out until weather temperatures improve. Not this Winter, it seems. I still have two Monarch chrysalis's, that the caterpillars created early in July, which are still quite green and showing no signs of a butterfly emerging. Today we visited Rawene, a quite delightful town on the West Coast of the upper North Island. Walking along the Rawene waterfront, imagine my surprise to come upon an unkempt grassy area chock full of very healthy swanplants (milkweed). Next we saw a Monarch Butterfly female hovering over one of the plants. She landed on it and laid eggs (yes - laid eggs - we saw it happen and it's mid July). In disbelief I ventured through the grass to be closer to the swanplants and there was more disbelief. There were caterpillars of several different sizes, including quite small ones that would have been perhaps a week old. Wow, wow and wow. It's mid Winter here. I have never seen Monarch caterpillars growing like that in mid Winter, yet there they were. Take a look. The other day we encountered this old female Monarch on the road. It was remarkably battered, yet somehow flying, although not very well. What a life it must have had. I was surprised that the wings were relatively intact, given the condition they were in, although there were a few tears and it seemed that almost 50% of the orange scales had rubbed away. Adult monarchs live for anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks. The females lay eggs and the males mate throughout most of this period. They get old and die, just as people do. In many cases the females may still have eggs in their bodies when they die, so they don't always get a chance to lay all of their eggs. (REF: Journey North) This tiny male Monarch flew off to its butterfly life today. We are in Winter in NZ, and so this one is very late to be coming out and flying off. It was 22 days in the chrysalis and the chrysalis was really small - about half the normal Monarch chrysalis size. At the time of forming its 'J', under a swan plant leaf, it formed an inadequate silk button and was literally hanging by a thread. I waited until the chrysalis happened and then, using hot melt glue, repositioned it onto the flat end of a toothpick. I poked the sharp end of the toothpick into my florists foam block and there it remained. The chrysalis began changing colour 3 days ago. It was a super slow colour change, although by yesterday morning it had become very black with its orange wings showing through the chrysalis skin. I thought it was well close to emerging, but no, it remained in the chrysalis until 10am this morning. But then everything happened quickly. It slid out of the chrysalis, it pumped up and dried its wings, it curled and zipped its proboscis halves together, then it became jumpy and seemed ready to go. I placed it outside on a silver Cineraria leaf where it immediately flexed its wings, open and closed, open and closed, open and closed. This lasted for about 30 minutes. I took several photos and measured the span of its wings (7.5cm - a usual wingspan is about 10 cm). I had barely finished doing this when off it flew. A really small and perfect male. Click on each picture to see a larger view. On May 21st 2016 I began fostering nine Monarch Chrysalis's brought to me by Marguerite F. Rice (Peg). Peg hails from Montana, USA, and she and her husband spend about five months of each year living in Paihia, Northland, New Zealand. While in New Zealand, Peg loves to raise Monarch Butterflies. At the time Peg was due to return home to Monatana she still had nine chrysalis's yet to eclose, so brought them to me to foster until the day they would fly off to their butterfly lives. Peg had numbered the chrysalis's in accordance with the butterflies she had released during the season in Paihia - 165, 167-170, 172-174. Our weather has recently turned for the worse as we come into Winter and everything has slowed down a little. Despite being nick-named "the winterless north" our area does become very cold and wet during Winter. During our warm Summers a Monarch will remain in its chrysalis for about 10 days. As our temperatures cool the chrysalis days stretch out, taking the butterflies longer and longer to eclose. This happened in the case of Peg's Butterflies. The first six were in the chrysalis for 15-18 days, the next two were in the chrysalis for 20 days and the final one was in the chrysalis for 21 days. The length of days played no part in how the butterflies emerged from their chrysalis's - all did it well and all were perfect. These photos show their first flights - click on each pic to see a larger view and description of the butterfly............ |
AUTHOR
Julie Vause
Opua, New Zealand. Keen butterfly photographer and raises Monarch Butterflies for release. " I'm crazy about butterflies and enjoy sharing the beauty and wonder of their transformations." VIDEO
Monarch Caterpillar emerging from egg
Click on video to enlarge
SITE VISITORSUNRAVELLING MONARCH MYSTERY
FRIENDS
NEWS ARCHIVES
September 2023
Member of......
|