Monarch Caterpillar
Facts About The Amazing Monarch Caterpillar
The monarch caterpillar is a fat and pretty little guy, and doesn’t tend to cause much of an issue to flower gardens or other valuable foliage. He prefers the milkweed plant as his main home and food source, and his life begins here in the form of an egg. The milkweed plant is just that, a weed, and is quite plentiful in most regions of North America. If you haven’t a sufficient supply of wild milkweed, and you are not allergic to it, you may be able to find seed or young plants at your local garden center or green house, and these can be planted as close to your home as you wish. Now then, after the monarch caterpillar hatches from his egg, his fight for the ultimate weight and nutrition gain will immediately begin.
Once this process starts for the monarch caterpillar, he will feed only on milkweed leaves. For the next two weeks he will continue to grow in both circumference and length, eventually reaching 2 inches long. He is a beautiful larvae, and his intricate black, white, and yellow pattern is unmistakable. He is banded all the way down his body, and the pattern is arranged in a very distinctive manner. The black and white bands are the widest, with the smaller yellow bands happening in between. This pattern goes: black, white, black, white, black, yellow, black, yellow, then back to black and white. This repeats along the entirety of his body. If you think reading it is dizzying, you should examine this fine little creature for yourself!
Once the proper weight and nutritional values have been met, both of which are determined by nature and the climate during his development, the monarch caterpillar will attach himself head first to a sturdy twig and hangs for a few days. A metamorphosis has begun beneath his skin, and once this has completed, the caterpillar will begin to work out of his skin. He is now a green, soft chrysalis, and once his skin is completely shed his shell will harden. He will need this protection as he continues the miraculous transformation within. All of his stored nutrition begins to take shape as wings, legs, and other slender body parts which will turn him into an adult monarch butterfly.
As the monarch caterpillar undergoes this process, his chrysalis will become more and more transparent. It is a wonder to see these clear shells in the wild, and to watch the gentle movements of the insect within. About ten days into the change, one can see the colors of the butterfly clearly through the chrysalis. After two weeks, the monarch caterpillar is no more, and the delicate, beautiful adult monarch butterfly will emerge.