Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Monarch Remember Alvin, the first of Timothia’s offspring who hatched yesterday (May 22)? Today he had a brother who was born, and whereas Alvin couldn’t seem to care less about another Butterfly, his brother, Brutus, is an all out Pimp! First came this Painted Lady Butterfly trying to impress Brutus Shortly after the Painted Lady Butterfly…  Remember Alvin, the first of Timothia’s offspring who hatched yesterday (May 22)? I had mentioned that I brought him inside last night because he just sat on the Butterfly Bush and didn’t even flinch when another female Monarch came fluttering by. So today I took Alvin back outside to release him. He calmly stretched his… Or maybe Alvin is wondering if a mad scientist is going to dissect him. Never! I just thought the responsible thing to do after any of Timothia’s offspring hatch would be to test them for the OE parasite. Here’s what I did. Obviously I put on some gloves in case he was infected. I took…  This might be one of the most beautiful Monarch butterflies I have seen, but I am also kind of biased. This is the first offspring from none other than Timothia! You can tell by the two black spots on the lower part of his wings that he is a male. He hatched some time today… I mentioned before that we have about 50 Monarch caterpillars. Well, now we only have around 5 caterpillars. The remaining have all turned into seemingly healthy Chrysalis. Besides their birth, Monarchs have significant developmental challenges at their other stages of development. Going from an egg to a caterpillar, then caterpillar to Chrysalis, then Chrysalis to… Octomom would have nothing on Timothia. Right now we have about 20 Monarch chrysalis, with several more chomping away at the milkweed. Fortunately, we have enough milkweed (I hope) so that all of our current caterpillars have a chance to become full-fledged Monarch butterflies. The monarch caterpillars destroyed my current crop of milkweed. Fortunately Joshua’s had 18 one gallon milkweed plants in stock. We cleaned him out. Hopefully this will last until at least the weekend. The image below is just one plant, and just at the top of the plant. We’ve been able to count over 50 caterpillars…  Okay, so I probably have about 60 or so milkweed plants for Monarchs which you might think would suffice quite well while most of the Monarchs are migrating north. As usual, that thinking has got me into trouble. I mentioned in an earlier post about how we quarantined “some” of the eggs from Timothia, and… Despite Timothia no longer being around, her babies are alive and kicking! I have built a protective enclosure around the milkweed where Timothia laid her eggs. It’s amazing that after just 4 short days of a Monarch egg being laid, that they soon turn into caterpillars. This will be an interesting experiment and learning experience. … On Thursday, May 7, 2009 I made the decision to humanely put Timothia to rest. The were several reasons for the decision. One, her wings were starting to tear and her legs would get caught in her wings. Two, she was getting noticeably weaker. Because her legs kept getting caught in her wings, we kept…  Timothia’s first day laying eggs. She most likely has the OE disease and that’s why her wings did not unfurl. In hindsight, although this was a very rewarding experience for me, I probably should have euthanized Timothia in order to prevent further spreading of the disease |
|