Tuesday August 14, 2007

Learning More About Monarchs

I smiled this morning when I saw the design Michael’s munching was making.  It reminded me of people who won’t eat the crust on their bread!

After checking on Michael, I looked for the four eggs.  I found three, but could not locate the fourth.  My heart dropped, because I thought one must have shriveled up and died…

…then I found A BABY!

I was so excited to find this tiny – almost invisible – thing moving on a leaf!

I named it Munch

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This evening – after preparing the aquarium my brother, Clair, gave me last night – I decided there was room for another vase of milkweed leaves, so went to my brothers’ farm to look for a few more stems – and hopefully more eggs or caterpillars.

Look What I Found!

Twins!  I named them Molly and Max.

I also found three more eggs.  Now my aquarium holds six eggs and four caterpillars.

The Four Caterpillars

Munch is so tiny, I had to use a yellow arrow to point it out to you.

After transferring Max and Molly to a leaf in my aquarium, Max promptly took off for a new leaf home.

Molly stayed a while longer, but then thought she saw a greener leaf on the other side of the stem.

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This great Website was given to me by another blogger:  http://monarchwatch.com/

Click on Monarch Biology (third on the left).  That will give you an interesting page on Anatomy.  Make sure you also click on Sexing Monarchs and Life Cycle on the left.  I found those three pages quite informative and interesting.  I learned that I cannot tell the sex of the caterpillar until it is a Pupa (Chrysalis).