Once again it's that time of year for the butterflies to lay eggs on my milkweed and start that wonderful transformation. The photo above was taken a couple years ago in my yard. It was the first time I had ever seen a butterfly laying eggs. I got a few good pictures of her too!I wasn't going to do another blog about this, BUT, I got an awesome new camera for Christmas and figured I could probably get way better pictures this year. I got a Canon Rebel XTi. It's a DSL, the kind you can buy additional lenses for. I bought a cheap little screw on macro lens for taking really close up shots.
I'll be adding pictures from day to day of the process, just as I did last year on my butterfly blog.
June 29, 2008 - The butterflies were in the yard flying around the milkweed in my butterfly garden. They were obviously laying eggs because here is an egg on my milkweed plant. Female monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed, the only plant monarch caterpillars can eat. The eggs are generally laid on the undersides of leaves one at a time. The eggs are very small, as you can see, and are white in color. The eggs will hatch in 3 to 6 days.
July 2, 2008 - Caterpillar egg, ready to hatch, next to the grain of rice. The black portion is it's head ready to emerge from the egg.
July 3, 2008 - The caterpillar coming out of the egg. Right after they hatch the caterpillar is so small it can barely be seen. For these pictures of the egg and the tiny caterpillar, I have my camera set to a macro setting with a screw on cheap set of 4 macro lenses. It grows very fast and eats nothing but milkweed leaves. In about 9 to 14 days it is full grown and about 2" long. The monarch caterpillar has eight pair of legs. The first three pair of legs will later become the butterfly's legs.
July 5, 2008 - Two days old and he is starting to look like a real caterpillar! They shed their skin 5 times during their life as a caterpillar.
July 6, 2008 - Three days old and you can see he is starting to get his antenna!
July 7, 2008 - And again back a bit farther so you can see how big he actually is.
July 8, 2008 - 5 Days old, can you tell which end is the front? BTW, starting now I'm experimenting in shooting in manual mode. 
July 8, 2008 - A fresh new leaf. He is officially bigger than the grain of rice! 
July 9, 2008 - 6 Days old now and I happened to catch him right at the end of shedding his skin. The other end is his head and you can see his antenna are down. A monarch caterpillar sheds its skin up to five times during the larval stage. Almost the same way a snake sheds its skin when its body has outgrown the skin, a caterpillar does the same. A new, larger skin is always waiting under the one that is shed. You can see the skin at the end of the caterpillar's tail in this picture. The caterpillars I have raised generally shed their skin every two days. 
July 9, 2008 - He's way bigger than the grain of rice now.
July 9, 2008 - A bit farther back so you can see his size a bit better. He's still small even though he looks large in the closeups. 
July 10, 2008 - He's officially a week old and he's growing leaps and bounds every day. They are only a caterpillar for 9-14 days.
July 10, 2008 - I think I'll start using a ruler instead of the rice now LOL.
July 10, 2008 - Isn't he just the cutest thing! 
July 11, 2008 - 8 days old. Shedding his skin again! He may only have once more to go, or maybe twice. If you look very closely on his head you can see three tiny dots. Those are his eyes. Weird, huh! The legs at the front of his body(to the left) will become the butterfly's legs.
July 11, 2008 - After he dried off a while. He's really taking shape now.
July 11, 2008 - From a bit farther back.
July 12, 2008 - 9 days old now and I don't think it will be long before he heads to the top to form his chrysalis.
July 12, 2008 - As always, a shot from a bit farther away. 
July 13, 2008 - 10 Days old and either he will shed one more time or he will head to the top very soon. He's pretty big now.
July 13, 2008 - As always, a shot from a bit farther away.
July 14, 2008 - I was right when I said that he would head to the top at anytime.
July 14, 2008 - I missed it shedding it's skin for the last time. I'll try to get one of the others though. I have 12 caterpillars in various stages at the moment. Within an hour the chrysalis hardens to become a protective shell for the caterpillar inside. Dramatic changes occur inside the chrysalis. The mouth parts must go from being those required for chewing (what the caterpillar needed to eat milkweed leaves) to what a butterfly will need: a straw-like tongue used for sipping nectar from flowers. And a creepy, crawling insect will become a flying insect, and what I think is one of the most beautiful insects on earth!
July 21, 2008 - About 3:00 pm. It shouldn't be long now. You can see that the chrysalis is starting to become clearer. You can kind of see the veins in the wings if you look closely, and perhaps a bit of the butterfly body at the bottom. 
July 21, 2008 - Just a few hours later at about 9:30 pm and you can see the colors of the butterfly's wings. I am guessing by tomorrow we will have our first butterfly! 
July 22, 2008 - Taken at about 6:30 am. You can see that there is no green left at all this morning and the butterfly will be ready to emerge very soon! Lots of progress just from last night at about 9:30 pm.
July 22, 2008 - About 8:00 am, shouldn't be too long now!
July 22, 2008 - About 8:30 am - We have a butterfly!! I'll let her dry for a bit before I put her in the garden on a flower. You can tell she is a female because the males have one black spot on each wing and the webbing on the wings is much thicker in the females. 
July 22, 2008 - 9:00 am. The process is complete, isn't she just beautiful!
July 22, 2008 - 10:00 am - She is opening and closing her wings to dry them off before she tries to fly for the first time.
July 22, 2008 - 10:00 am - Right after I took this last picture she flew away. What an exciting morning it has been. 
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