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LinkedInPosts Tagged: eclosure
It Is Not a Good Time to Be a Butterfly
It is not a good time to be a butterfly. Especially if you're a monarch butterfly that eclosed on Jan. 5 in cold and rainy Vacaville, Calif. while all--or most--of your counterparts are overwintering along coastal California or in central Mexico. You don't even count; scientists and citizen...
A female monarch that eclosed on Jan. 5 perches on a finger, next to a garden flag depicting a male monarch and a worker honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a monarch that eclosed on Jan. 5, 2017. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tiny/Tim Not Long for This World
It was bound to happen. Not all monarch butterflies that you rear will make it. Such was this case this week with when two monarchs eclosed, both crippled and struggling to survive. The damage to their crumbled wings may have occurred when, as jade-green chrysalids, they fell to the floor...
Tiny and Tim on a replica of a penny-farthing. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tim catches some rays. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
From an Egg to a Caterpillar to a Chrysalis to a Monarch
Have you ever seen a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) lay an egg on her host plant, the milkweed? Have you ever seen a close-up of the egg? The larva or caterpillar? The chrysalis? The eclosure (when the adult emerges from the chrysalis)? It's a fascinating sight. Not all eggs...
A monarch laying an egg on her host plant, milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a cream-colored monarch egg. Note the oleander or milkweed aphid next to it. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A very tiny caterpillar but it's big enough to start eating holes in the leaves. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A fifth-instar monarch caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The jade green chrysalid. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Voila! A monarch butterfly has just eclosed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A monarch sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
