The butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed, because after they hatch, milkweed is the only food the caterpillars will eat. The caterpillars are striped yellow, white and black, and can be as small as a quarter-inch piece of thin string. They will quickly grow to more than two inches long and a quarter inch wide.
Once you've located a monarch caterpillar (large or small) on a leaf, cut the stem of the milkweed down low, so that you have a stalk with many leaves (and the caterpillar on one of them). Be sure to plunge the cut end into water at once, or it will seal off. If you’ve forgotten to bring a jar with water, re-cut the stem at home and put it into water at once. You may be able to keep the leaves green that way (but it's not a sure thing). The caterpillar holds on very stoutly, so you don’t have to worry about its falling off, but be careful not to brush it against anything.
At home, set the jar on a newspaper (to catch droppings) and then just watch the critter grow. Don't worry; it won't leave the plant until it is ready to form its chrysalis. (A word of warning: if you find a similar caterpillar on something other than milkweed, it is not a monarch. The caterpillar of the swallowtail butterfly, for example, is similarly striped, only with green instead of yellow. It will definitely crawl off its plant if you put it indoors).
The caterpillar will be voracious, so be sure you know where to find more milkweed. If it eats all the leaves, find another stalk of milkweed, and transfer the caterpillar to it by cutting off the leaf it is eating, and placing the cut leaf on top of a leaf on the new stem, pinning it with a straight pin (careful: don't touch Mr. Caterpillar!)
Don't worry if the creature fasts for a day or two at a time, because when it grows too big for its skin, it stops eating and sheds, and may shed its skin two or three times before it goes into its chrysalis. In my classroom, we used a magnifying glass to look at the shriveled skin that had dropped onto the newspaper, and likened it to the sweaters that children sometimes toss aside when they come indoors.
When the caterpillar is about two or two and a half inches long, it will start to wander. At this point, you must cage it or you’ll lose it. I make a cage out of a box with sides cut out and screened with plastic screening, and then I place the jar, milkweed and all, inside. It would be wise to put the box over it at night after the critter gets really big, even if it hasn’t started to wander, because it will keep on eating no matter what the hour, and you don’t want it to wander off while you're asleep.
Once it starts to wander, the caterpillar will crawl to the top of the cage (or possibly up to the upper end of the stem of milkweed), hang itself upside down in a 'J' shape, and shed its skin. The chrysalis will be lumpy at first, but very quickly it will become a thing of wonder, smooth, lantern-shaped, and jade green, with glittering gold dots on it.
In about 12 days, its surface will suddenly become clear, and you’ll be able to see the butterfly wadded up inside. When this happens, keep close watch – birth is imminent. When the butterfly emerges, it is damp and crumpled, and will hang upside down for quite awhile, gradually pumping its wings until they are strong and sleek.
Once the wings are spread out, you will be able to tell whether the butterfly is male or female by the presence of two black 'dots' or swellings on two of the lines on the lower part of the wings. Do not rush to let the butterfly go. It can stay safely in its cage for at least twenty-four hours without food, and will need time to gather strength in its wings. When you are ready to let it go, take the cage outside, open it, and put your finger gently under the butterfly's feet. It will probably hop onto your finger. If you are patient and hold your hand up, the butterfly will take off, circling to get its bearings, and sail away, usually to the south toward the warmth of the sun as it starts off for its winter home in Mexico. This ritual setting-free is, for me, a quintessential magic moment, and my own quiet farewell to summer.
If you are enjoying this process with a child, here are some books that you may find in the children’s section of your local library, to help you explain and follow along as the monarch does its thing.
- Monarch Butterfly by Bill Ivy; part of the Getting to Know Nature's Children series; Grolier Educational Corporation.
- Gotta Go! Gotta Go! by Sam Swope; Farrar, Straus & Giroux
- Discovering Butterflies by Douglas Florian; Chas. Scribner & Sons, NY
- The Travels of Monarch X by Ross E. Hutchins; Rand McNally & Co.
- Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons; Holiday House
- Monarch Butterflies – Mysterious Travelers; Dutton Children’s Books
Some sites relating to the endangerment of the Monarch:
World Wildlife Federation (Canadian branch)
Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation
Monarch Migration
The Ardent Collector (Vladimir Nabokov)
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