Monarch Butterflies

One of this summer’s science projects was growing Monarch butterflies.  A single Swan plant.  This yielded a dozen or so caterpillars. The plant grew to a good size, but was no match for the caterpillars’ ferocious appetite.  It held up for a while, but 4th instar caterpillars stripped the plant of leaves in a couple of days.  At that point we fed them on strips of butternut pumpkin until they pupated.

We now have four pupae.  The remainder of the caterpillars wandered off into other plants and couldn’t be found or were predated by wasps.

Pupae are two weeks old – should emerge any day…