Whatever Happened to that Monarch Caterpillar?

Some of you may recall we had a Monarch Caterpillar in our garden a few weeks back. We watched over him for a few days and then he disappeared. Not truly knowing what happened to him, we told ourselves he crawled off somewhere to go into the next phase which is the pupa and from there to hopefully morph into a butterfly a few weeks later. A friend on social media told us that they will do this, looking for a safer place to do this. So having someone actually tell us that gave us hope that this was actually happening.

Over the next few weeks I always kept a look out in the garden. Numerous times I squatted down, peering into the many plants near the swamp milkweed where it fed as a caterpillar. Never did I spot the pupa.

Last Thursday while out puttering in the yard, my eyes finally caught something. It was orange and black. It was moving. It was about 2 feet from the swamp milkweed plant. Holy! It was the Monarch emerging as a butterfly!

Look at the size of the abdomen here. That was something I had never seen before.

I texted Angie and told her the news. I had wished she was home to see this with me.

My first sighting to this miracle of nature was about 11 am.

I went about my morning, doing the things I must do before going to work. I checked on the butterfly a few times throughout.

I also did some Google researching to see how long this process could take until it would fly away. Approximately 2 hours until the wings hardened enough.

My last check was at 12:30 pm. The Monarch was gone. I half wished I delayed my shower to witness it fly off but that was the chance I took. A quick crappy shot of the spot, you can see the pupa in the blurry section. I'm still amazed at how well it blended in with the salvias. I know I peered through this spot more than a couple times since it disappeared.

This has never happened before in our backyard. It was a little more thrilling for us since our Cecropia moth never emerged from last year. Having this all happen naturally made for a really memorable experience (no disrespect to those who raise caterpillars in enclosures). It also inspires us to do more with our developing pollinator garden.

As I said in my last blog, it certainly has been the year for caterpillars.