We have some great nectar flowers in bloom right now, so it's wonderful to see "our" three local Monarch butterflies flitting around the garden each day. They twist and turn around the garden, enjoying the flowers. The females lay eggs on the Swan Plants as they go. It's fun to see how Monarch butterflies chase Sparrows - something I didn't know they did until I saw it for myself.
Our Monarch caterpillars are coming along well. In my area, at this early part of the season, the milkweed plants (in New Zealand we have Swan Plants - Ascelpias physocarpa) are healthy. So far there are not too many Aphids around to damage the plants, so they're in good condition for the Monarchs. We have some great nectar flowers in bloom right now, so it's wonderful to see "our" three local Monarch butterflies flitting around the garden each day. They twist and turn around the garden, enjoying the flowers. The females lay eggs on the Swan Plants as they go. It's fun to see how Monarch butterflies chase Sparrows - something I didn't know they did until I saw it for myself. Click on each picture below to see closer....................... We are entering our 2022-23 Monarch season in New Zealand and I'm seeing a number of Monarch butterflies flying in our garden - more than in previous years at this time.
They're especially enjoying the nectar from the Verbena flowers, which is the whole reason why I have them growing. My best surprise, yesterday, was finding this Monarch caterpillar on a Swan Plant. At about 20mm long I was delighted to see it had already grown to this size without being eaten by ants or wasps - plus I found 4 other teeny caterpillars on the plant. We're seeing quite a few Asian Paper Wasps too and I feel the caterpillars need a chance, so now they're all safely tucked inside the caterpillar castle, in our house out of harms way, where they can grow to emerge as butterflies. 🦋 Yesterday, when we set out on our search for fungi to photograph and instead found Long-tailed Blue butterflies (read my previous post), we also encountered several Swan Plants and a Monarch caterpillar growing in the wild. Swan Plant (common name that we New Zealanders refer to them by) 'gomphocarpus physocarpus' is our most common milkweed for Monarch caterpillars and butterflies, is also known as hairy balls, balloon plant, balloon cotton-bush, bishop's balls, or nailhead. The plant is native to southeast Africa, but has been widely naturalized. Along the track leading into the forest, there were eight reasonably-sized Swan Plant bushes. Apart from one, all were vigourously healthy and covered with large 'swans' full of seeds. The plant that was not doing well was covered with Aphids, although none of the other plants had any Aphids on them. In fact it was on the Aphid-ridden plant that I found a 4th instar Monarch caterpillar, so I transferred it to one of the more healthy plants. And while I was doing all this a beautiful and healthy female Monarch Butterfly was patrolling the area, up and down, up and down, overhead. Click on each picture to see a larger view.
This is another late season Monarch caterpillar that I have brought inside. When I found it on the swanplant, it was in it's 3rd instar. Once in the caterpillar castle it ate milkweed leaves for about a day, then it stayed very still under a leaf for 48 hours. This indicated to me that it was in preparation to change it's skin. This morning I found that it had slipped out of the old skin and is now in the 4th instar. An instar is a phase between two periods of moulting in the development of the caterpillar. Monarch Caterpillars pass through 5 instars before forming their chrysalis, shedding their skin between each. This allows them to grow bigger within a skin, before slipping it off in favour of another skin that will allow them to grow even bigger. This caterpillar has just done this and is eating the old skin. It will have one more skin change before growing really fat and later forming its chrysalis. 🦋 (Please excuse the quality of the photos taken with my phone) Just when I thought it was time to take a step back from Monarchs for a few months, as our weather becomes colder and colder, it seems they have other ideas. Look who's here................
Click on each picture to see a larger view We have a man down. Largest caterpillar hasn't made it. It was growing so well but during last weekend we noticed it seemed like it was shrinking. As the days went by it did shrink in size and I noticed it had a little red 'pooh-like' button at the end of its body which didn't drop off. Monarch caterpillar pooh is usually quite green and is called frass, by the way. Last night largest caterpillar was writhing on the plant and this morning it was curled up and 'kind of' still attached to the plant by an end foot. Clearly it wasn't going to make it, so I did the kind thing and euthanised it by wrapping it in a paper towel and placing it in the freezer. Monarch Caterpillars and Butterflies need warmth to survive. By wrapping them in a paper towel (gently but firmly) and placing it in the freezer, they can't move around and the cold sends them quickly to sleep before they freeze. It's unfortunate to have to do it, but preferable to allowing a lovely creature to suffer. On a positive note, middle caterpillar is now huge and very close to forming its chrysalis. Smallest caterpillar is a good middle-size and eating well. Our weather has become really cold now. Where we live in New Zealand is referred to as 'the Winterless North', however today the morning temperature was 7 C (45 F), so no wonder our caterpillars are enjoying being inside our house where it's a bit warmer than that. When the sun comes up each day, I place their plant into the sunny part of the window so they can soak up the warmth. My final 3 Monarch caterpillars for the season, here in New Zealand, are still doing well. I have them in our lounge with a heater in the room, set to turn on early in the morning to take the chill out of the air. Our temperatures are so very cold at the moment with snow in southern parts of the country. We live in the far north of New Zealand where there is no snow, however our morning temperatures are coming in at a very cold 6 degrees Celcius (42.8 Fahrenheit) in the morning. Just look at big caterpillar in the picture above. At one stage I wondered if it would even survive, because it was quite sluggish when I found it on a swan plant outside in the cold, several weeks ago. Now it's growth unlimited as it steams towards being large enough to form its chrysalis quite soon. ........and, the other two caterpillars are doing just as well. Small caterpillar is rapidly heading towards being a large caterpillar. Tiny caterpillar is now medium in size. I place their plant in the sun coming through the window, during the day, and the heater warms them the rest of the time. Monarch resort? Quick progress update. Biggest caterpillar is 15 mm long. Middle caterpillar has had another shedding of skin and is 7 mm long. Smallest caterpillar is 4 mm long. They're not walking around the plant as much as they might if it were Summer with lovely warm weather to keep them active, however they're eating lots and seem perfectly happy. It's very cold here now, just as we expect June to be in New Zealand - even up here in the so-called Winterless North and cold temperatures slow caterpillars down a lot. So far, so good, however. Tiny caterpillar has been busy. It has shed its skin for the first time and will do this 5 times before forming it's chrysalis. Tiny caterpillar is now about 3mm long. It's an active caterpillar and moves well, around the leaves, and I often have to search to see where it has got to. As you can see, it has eaten a lot of the leaf that its on. I'm fascinated because, even if it goes off this leaf, it later goes back to it and carries on eating where it left off. In the picture below, look above the caterpillar and you will see a hole it ate when it was really tiny. Notice how the eaten section hasn't gone right through the depth of the leaf, but rather it has just eaten around the veins. I'm guessing that its tiny, immature, mouth can't yet cope with nipping the back of the leaf vein to drain out the toxins in the white 'milk', so it has eaten around the veins to avoid the toxins that way. |
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
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September 2023
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