Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Welcome

Hello, and Welcome to my blog!
My name is Ada. I am 12 years old. I am home schooled.
For now, most of my posts will be about the Monarch Butterfly caterpillars I have, and are studying. I have 5 of them. This is a report I wrote about them:

The Monarch Butterfly, also known as the "milkweed butterfly", lays their eggs on the underside of the leaves of the milkweed plant (thus, it has the second name). In three to twelve days, the egg will hatch. The number of days depends on the temperature. When the egg hatches, a tiny caterpillar comes out, which you must look through a magnifying glass to see. The larvae stays on the plant, and eats it. Milkweed is the only plant the larvae can eat. The larvae feeds on the plant and develops into a caterpillar about two inches long. The growth of the caterpillar happens during a period of about two weeks. The caterpillar will then attach itself upside-down to a twig. They then shed their outer skin, and begin to transform into a chrysalis. As time goes by, the chrysalis becomes transparent, and in about two weeks, a beautiful Monarch Butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. They will head to Florida, Texas, and Mexico to winter, then return to the north for the summer. While they are migrating, large groups of Monarch Butterflies can be seen together. Do you know what the picture below is of?


Hundreds of Monarch Butterflies


It's not leaves... it's hundreds of Monarchs!


Following are pictures I found online in order, showing the process described above.


Milkweed


Monarch Caterpillar


Monarch Chrysalis


Monarch Butterfly 2




Thanks for reading! Stop by again soon, I'll be posting pictures of the caterpillars I have!