More Than Butterflies

I'm not ready for winter. So, I spend my time looking back at the photos I took over those warm summer months. While you might not realize it from my blogs, there were more than butterflies in my garden.  I also found these beautiful beetles I'd never seen before. They're milkweed beetles.  And each one seems to have a different pattern on its back.

Then there were the grasshoppers.

What big teeth you have, my dear.

And the green tomatoes.  It was the first year I'd ever tried growing tomatoes and not all of them turned red. So there was another first -- green fried tomatoes.

Watch a Monarch Caterpillar's Heart Beat

This is really an amazing video.  You can see the pulsing heart beat of the caterpillar.  I'm having trouble getting my links to show up, but if you hover your cursor next to the colon, you should find it: A Monarch's Heartbeat.

Meanwhile, I only have one caterpillar in the chrysalis stage right now.  When this little guy emerges he or she will fly off, mate and produce the eggs of the generation destined to migrate all the way to Mexico or California for the winter.

A monarch lives 6-8 weeks, from egg to butterfly.  Each year there are four generations of monarchs. The migrating butterflies head north and lay their eggs in March/April, giving life to that year's 1st generation.  When they become butterflies, they will begin the cycle again in May and June for the second generation.  The third generation is born in July and August and the fourth in September/October. This last generation is unique.  They do not die.  Instead, they migrate south to Mexico and California, where they will hibernate until February or March and they start their long flight back north where the cycle will begin again.

The flowering milkweed smells like honesuckle

But to continue this miraculous cycle, monarchs need milkweed.  It is the only plant they lay their eggs on and the only plant the growing caterpillars feed on.  Without it, they cannot exist.  Unfortunately, the fields and pastures where these plants once flourished have been uprooted by shopping malls and houses.  So, I urge you to set aside a small corner in your garden and plant some milkweed.  Don't like to garden?  Plant some anyway. It will grow in spite of you.  And next summer you can enjoy watching this cycle of life play out in your own backyard. It's worth it.

It's A Boy!

Getting up to work out at 5:30 in the a.m. more often than not ends up with me hitting the snooze button on the alarm a couple of times.  Then I remembered there was a butterfly about to birth.  Nothing like the right motivation.

My timing was perfect.  Here is the sequence of events.

You can barely see it, but if you look at the lower left wing, you can see a spot in the vein. This indicates it's a male.

Monarch Butterflies

Monarch Butterflies, a set on Flickr.

Photostream of the butterlies

Butterflies are Free!

You can see his wings

I went to bed on Friday night feeling anxious. One of the monarch chrysalis' was changing.  The wings could be seen beneath the pale green of its cocoon. I didn't want to miss watching the butterfly burst forth from its shell, but it was late and I was tired.

small wings, large body

Still, I was up early on Saturday, checking on my butterfly's progress. Happily, he was still in his shell.  In the short time it took me to feed the dog, he had begun to emerge.

wings are uncurling, getting larger

At first his wings seemed much to small and I worried that he was deformed in some way.  I took him outside into the sunshine. He began to move his wings, opening them, soaking up the warm morning air.  He sat on my finger, weightless, his feet sticky.




I went into the house and found another of the butterflies had emerged from her chrysalis.  I had two of them now.






They both hung on the bird feeder for awhile and then, worrying that a bird might think they looked too enticing, I moved them to the garden.  And that's where they stayed until they flew away.  They're both females, so I hope they'll soon mate and lay more eggs in my garden.

Free at last