Monarch Butterfly Tracking Begins

Our insect focus for Nature Study seemed to find a perfect companion in the Monarch Tracking program we found out about through the "Wings of Paradise" butterfly conservatory. Purchase of a tracking kit included the following items:

• tropical milkweed plant
• 5 caterpillars at various stages of molting
• 1 chrysalis
• a butterfly rearing cage
• packet of common milkweed seeds
• raising monarchs instruction manual
• admission for 4 to the butterfly conservatory
• a poster of the life cycle of the monarch

So, here we are at the end of our first week of school and we've just had our second field trip for the year!

My Girl set up the cage as soon as we returned home, moved in the potted plant, and carefully transferred the caterpillars from the disposable transporting container onto the base of the plant. Within minutes the largest caterpillar had begun to climb the stem, then leaves of the milkweed. We've decided to set up on our enclosed front porch - the little fellows need natural light and I'm sure they'll benefit from not being in a major traffic area.

The cage is enclosed on all sides, top, and bottom, all with a very fine mesh except for one side, which is of clear plastic, allowing for better viewing. One of the mesh sides zips open and closed to allow us to remove aphids from the plant (my job) and clean out the frass (caterpillar waste) daily (My Girl's job).

In the picture to the left, you can see one of the caterpillars hanging from a leaf just below the handle on this side of the cage. Unfortunately he fell from the leaf twice - once My Girl put him back in, once Dear Man came to the rescue after finding him three-quarters of the way up the mesh wall. Since then, My Girl has attached sticks to the side of the pot so that if any others fall they have a way of climbing back up.

Since beginning to read about the caterpillars (that's only since Saturday afternoon) I've learned that once hatched, they will molt 5 times, and that the periods between moltings are called instars. The caterpillars we got were probably representatives of at least 3 instars. The one you see here on the left is our largest friend. He is the one we expect to go through the last molting into chrysalis state first. In this picture he is sitting on one of the loose leaves that travelled with him in his transportation container. We'll remove that one shortly as they only like fresh milkweed.

The conservatory included a chrysalis in the kit. It is from a caterpillar farm (as are the caterpillars we have received) and has been pinned to the leaf of our milkweed since we picked it up. I have never seen such a wondrous thing. It is a gorgeous jade green with a strip of fabulous gold dots about 1/3 of the way down. We can see the creases of wings tightly folded within the chrysalis and are waiting eagerly for emergence of the butterfly, although, to be honest, right now I can't imagine being any more awed by the butterfly than I already am by this lovely jewel-like pod!

Would you believe that this is the first time in my life that I have ever seen this happen? I've lived in Canada all my life (well, almost all) and have seen many caterpillars. But I don't recall ever witnessing milkweed caterpillars transform into monarch butterflies. I'm not sure I've even seen a milkweed caterpillar before!

You can be sure we'll keep you up to date on this adventure!