She was perfect and did everything right. How do I know she was a female? Check here
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I really calmed down on the number of caterpillars I raised this Summer. This was due to our being away a lot, then we had a super dry Summer that greatly reduced the quality of our Swan Plants (milkweed), then later the plants became hugely infested with aphids that rendered them useless to Monarchs. We live in a high humidity area and our particular little patch has quite a tropical micro-climate of its own. We grow wonderful banana plants and other tropicals, but swan plants (milkweed)? No.
The result of all that has seen me pulling out all the aphid-infested swan plants and I don't plan on replanting them. There are still a few small plants growing, however they too are quickly becoming aphid infested, so I'm pulling them out as I see them.
I tried draping pieces of orange peel over some of the small plants, but so far that has done nothing to reduce the aphid population.
Now I have two chrysalis left and, once they have emerged and flown, that will be it for me.
Next Summer I'll focus on just growing nectar plants for the butterflies, and doing lots of butterfly photography.