All 4 Butterflies!!!

Goliath***************************** Tiny



Monica***********************King George

Now I would like to share with you some of the observations I recorded during my monarch research time.

I had four caterpillars. 1 turned into a chrysalis at night, and the other 3 made their chrysalises in the morning. Goliath was the caterpillar that went into the chrysalis at night, while Tiny, Monica, and King George were the ones that made their chrysalises in the morning. I was able to see Tiny and Monica make their chrysalises, but Goliath was the only butterfly that I saw come out of the chrysalis, in it's entirety. I was able to see Goliath and King George hanging from the lid of the jar before they made their chrysalises. I suppose they are going to head south very soon. I read that they migrate about October to February. The Monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains are said to migrate in Florida, Texas, or Mexico. The Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains tend to migrate to California.

Did you know: Not all butterflies that look like Monarch Butterflies are Monarch Butterflies? The Monarch Butterfly advertises that it is poisonous by it's colors. The Viceroy Butterfly has the same colors that say it is poisonous, but it is actually not poisonous. In contrast to the Monarch in the caterpillar and chrysalis stage, the Viceroy is quite... different. When the Viceroy is a caterpillar, it feeds on the leaves of Oak, Poplar, and Willow trees. The caterpillar looks more or less like a twig, brown and worm-like. When it makes the chrysalis, it will wrap a leaf around itself. The chrysalis is also brown, and it will get and fungus-like growth on it that looks like a wart. Yet the result of the process inside of the chrysalis will be as beautiful as the result on the Monarch. The Monarch get's it's poison from feeding on the milkweed plant, but the Viceroy gets no poison at all. The enemies of the Monarch will not eat it, as it knows it is poison, nor will it eat the Viceroy, for, it says it is poison in the same way the Monarch does, though it is not.

Video of "Thing 2"

This is a video of "Thing 2" emerging from his chrysalis.
We decided to change his name to King George. He was a caterpillar for 17 days, in the chrysalis 1o days, and he emerged on the 27th day, which was September 15th. For 7 days his chrysalis remained lime green. Then on the eighth day (24th day of my experiment) , it started turning blue. 65.5 hours later, it was completely clear.

Monica, Our Only Female Monarch Butterfly

Meet Thing #1 as a butterfly, who we now call "Monica".
I raised "Monica" from an egg here in Cumberland County.
She emerged on the 14th of September, just before we went to church. She is 26 days old total. She was 16 days a caterpillar, 10 days a chrysalis, and today... Voila!! Monica the Monarch Butterfly!!! :-) We put some sugar water in a jar lid since we had to leave before she was ready to fly, and we wouldn't be home when her wings were hard and strong enough to take her first flight. When we came home, she was trying to fly through the screen in the sun-room.

Did you know: The expression "Voila!" means "See there!" or "Look there!" There are 2 ways to pronounce it: \wä-ˈlä\, and \vwä-ˈlä\.

Tiny has emerged!!!

Tiny emerged on September 12th.He is a male. Look closely at the pictures to see the dots that show he is a male.He was at least 24 days old when he emerged. Tiny was in the chrysalis stage for 9 days.

This is a picture of Tiny on his first flight. He flew off my finger and landed in the sand when we tried to put him on a flower. We then picked him up and tried again to put him on the flower.

Success! He stayed on the flower this time :-) He stayed there for a few hours. I guess he was drinking lots of nectar so he would have plenty of energy for his long journey to Mexico :-)

Another butterfly should emerge soon!!

This is the left side of Tiny's chrysalis. Notice it is still a little green on top, like Goliath's was.

This is the back of Tiny's chrysalis. He is 23 days old since we found him, and 9 days old in his chrysalis.

This is the right side of Tiny's chrysalis.

This is the front of Tiny's chrysalis.

Tiny is turning blue!

This is Tiny. He is 8 days old in the chrysalis stage. He is 22 days old from when we found him.

In this picture you can see that the chrysalis is turning blue, but he will probably take longer to turn blue then Goliath did, because of the weather.
T

Goliath has Emerged!! :-)

This is Goliath, beginning to emerge from the chrysalis.

He will come out of the chrysalis, up side down, then he will flip right side up.

When he first comes out, his wings are small, soft, and wet. He will pump blood into them, and they will get bigger, but will still be soft. In the sunlight, they will harden and dry.

Now his wings are bigger, and are almost dry. He will hang onto his chrysalis case for about 3 hours. While he is hanging, he coils and uncoils his 2 long proboscises, until they join, and he has only 1. If he does not do this he will not be able to drink. Then he will climb on top of the lid of the jar, and fly.

Did you know: A male has a black dot on each of his back wings, where the female does not?

Did you know: The name chrysalis comes from the Greek word chrysos, which means "gold".

Goliath Almost all the way Blue!

This is the right side of Goliath's chrysalis. Notice the top is still a little green. Also look closely in this picture and the pictures following for the black and orange wings visible inside the chrysalis.
You can see that chrysalis is a clear blue, and it will become clearer before he emerges.

Goliath is 9 days in the chrysalis stage. He is 20 days older from when I found him on the milkweed plant.

Look closely for the wings in this picture especially.

This is the right side of Goliath's chrysalis.

A Lovely, Blue Morning

Gooood Mornin'! :-)
This is a picture of Goliath this morning at about 9:00 a.m. He is changing to the blue color more quickly now.
Did you know: Monarch Butterflies rarely emerge on a cloudy, rainy, or cool day like today. Some how they can sense the temperature outside even in the chrysalis.

The Chrysalises are turning blue!!

This is "Goliath"

This is "Tiny"

This is "Thing 1"

This is "Thing 2"

If you look closely at each of the pictures, you can see a little bit of a dark, purple-blue on the top, in the middle of the chrysalises. They will turn completely blue, and then they will turn clear. When they turn clear, you will be able to see the butterfly inside.

Did you know: The caterpillar makes a silk button where they are going to hang in the chrysalis stage. If they cannot attach the black stalk on top of the chrysalis to the button, before their skin falls off, they will fall and die. It must be hanging to continue the metamorphoses. If that had happened to one of my caterpillars, I could pick it up gently and attach it to the silk button. Or, I could have used super glue to hold it up there. Yes, really, it is true. I'm not kidding. :-) If you would like like to see the caterpillar attach the stalk to the silk button, before he releases his skin, look closely at the end of the video I posted earlier.

All in a Chrysalis

The first chrysalis is "Goliath". It is 6 days old.
The second chrysalis is "Tiny". It is 3 days old.
The third chrysalis is "Thing 1". It is 2 days old.
The fourth chrysalis is "Thing 2". It is 1 day old.

"Thing 2" was my last caterpillar to move up.
It's kinda saddening, know what I mean?
I hope I can raise more caterpillars next year!
Now we are waiting to see if we have males,
or females or both. A chrysalis changes into
a monarch butterfly in about 2 weeks.

Pandora Sphinx Moth

Daddy found a moth by his shop and trapped it under the dog food scoop. He brought it in and we put it in my old fish aquarium on top of a box. At first we thought it was a locust, but when Lindsey looked it up, we found out it was a Pandora Sphinx Moth. Here are some pictures we took of it:

All moved in!

The whole "soft" chrysalis process takes about 3 minutes to complete. The chrysalis will continue to turn lime green. You can see stripes now, but in about one hour the chrysalis will be solid green and harder.










This is the chrysalis 10 minutes later
when it is completely formed. "Thing 2"
began its transformation at 7:50 a.m.,
this morning.








Did you know: Most caterpillars molt into
a chrysalis between 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
This may be some "Thing 2" do for fun at your house!!!

Still getting the house ready.

< Notice the shedded skin on top. They shed their skin while making the chrysalis.



















These pictures are of the second minute when "Thing 2" made his chrysalis.

Thing 2

Notice the safety web he built

Here he started making the chrysalis
and shedding his skin.

These pictures are of the
first minute of "Thing 2"
making his Chrysalis.

Surprise, Surprise!

Watch this video to see "Thing 1":




So, what do you think?You may leave a comment on this post, if you would like to!
Wasn't that some "thing 1"derful? :-D

2 up, two 2 go!

This is "Thing 1" and "Thing 2". They are about 2 inches long, and 13 days old. They look like twins. Hey, you never know, they could be brothers! After all, couldn't both of their eggs come from the same butterfly? (See "Did you know" in "More of the Monarchs") :-)



Tiny is getting ready to make his Chrysalis! It's about 9:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. We are very excited because we will be able to watch the caterpillar change!!! Daddy was hoping to see it make the chrysalis, but he had to go to work before it changed.



Here we are! Tiny built a new house! :-) Notice the gold specks, the black and gold line, and the shiny black stem up top that keeps the chrysalis from falling. It is so small and skinny, it's amazingly strong enough to hold the chrysalis up there!

In the next post, there will be a surprise! I think you will find it very interesting!