Some of you Butterfly Gardeners may notice how full that Milkweed is.  The reason it’s so full, not just in this particular place but all across the yard, is because we only had 7 Monarch Caterpillars so far during the Spring until now.  Once they return in the Fall, we’ll be able to feed them to the point of exploding!

Young Male Cardinal Posing By Milkweed

I’ll start with the Monarchs.  Originally we had 9 Monarch caterpillars from that adult Monarch who probably traveled from Mexico.  Now we have 7.  Two of them died, but I’m not sure why.  I had been keeping the Monarch caterpillars in a protected enclosure to protect them from wasps, and I also had placed them on the Milkweed that had no Aphids.  When I checked yesterday, 2 of the Monarch caterpillars had died.  Since I’m not 100% certain that this Milkweed hasn’t been treated (and that being the reason for no Aphids on the plant), I decided to move them to the Aphid infested Milkweed.  At least I know that Milkweed is not treated (that’s one of my personal tests for knowing that Milkweed hasn’t been treated.  If it has Aphids, it likely is okay for the Monarchs).  I also moved them to an area that gets a bit more sun.  They seem to like that.  I’m guessing they have maybe a week at most before they move on to the Chrysalis stage.

For the record, this is by far the lowest number of Monarch caterpillars we’ve had in the Spring.  We haven’t even seen many Monarchs flying around.

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Eating Milkweed

Two Mexican Monarch Caterpillars Eating Milkweed

More Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Eating Milkweed

Now on to the Purple Martins.  There is lots of activity in our 14 room Purple Martin house.  Yesterday we took down the house to check out the nesting activity.  We have a total of 6 nests, but no eggs or baby birds.  In the morning, the Martins seems to be really focused on continuing to build their nests.  I’m hopeful that we will see some eggs real soon.

We haven’t seen any Monarch Butterflies, but we do have 9 Caterpillars from the one Monarch from Mexico.  To give the Caterpillars the best chance of success, I have quarantined them in our Butterfly Enclosure.  I did this to protect the Caterpillars from predatory wasps and flies.  So far, all of the Monarch Caterpillars appear to be doing great.

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Blooms

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Flower

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding

Another Butterfly that has been making daily visits is a Giant Swallowtail.  From what I can tell, she really likes laying eggs on our Moro Blood Orange Tree.  On that tree alone I’ve counted over 9 different eggs, and I’m sure there’s some I haven’t seen.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly Egg

I was fortunate enough to also catch a glimpse of 2 Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars. The Caterpillar in the picture below is about two days old.  You can even see the egg casing (white) in the background.

Two Day Old Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

We’ve also seen the Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly.  I’ve been able to find 1 Caterpillar so far.  I’ll post some pictures of that later.

You may remember me mentioning we have only seen 1 Monarch and she didn’t lay very many eggs on the milkweed.

We were only about to find about 5 really small Monarch Caterpillars

Young Monarch Caterpillars From Parents From Mexico

We decide to transfer them from our Aphid infested Milkweed to the Milkweed that’s been in quarantine.

Closeup Of Monarch Caterpillar Whose Parent Came From Mexico

However, we also spotted something that we have no idea what it is and could use some help

Ladybug Larvae

We have no idea what this critter is, nor what it is eating.  This isn’t a Butterfly Caterpillar is it?  Is it something that eats Butterfly Caterpillars?  Does it eat Aphids?

Any help from anyone?

Speaking of Butterflies, during the snow we recently had, Leecy and I went out and collected all the Monarch Caterpillars we could find so that they wouldn’t freeze to death.  It’s been a couple of weeks and those Caterpillars are now starting to hatch.  Just today we had 5 hatch.  I took them all outside and 3 of them did fly off after a short period of time, whereas 2 of them decided to just hang around because they weren’t quite ready.

I brought the two back inside since it is supposed to storm later today, so I can try and release them again tomorrow.  There will probably be some others that may hatch tomorrow and “supposedly” the sun will be out as well.

Here’s something else that’s interesting.  Take a look at this photo showing the Monarch Chrysalises.  Don’t they look a little strange?  To me it looks as though the Chrysalises are deformed.  Maybe that’s because of living in microgravity (or even better, maybe someone associated with this research can comment).

Another question I have for anyone who may know the answer.  In this experiment, did they not plan on providing any food source for these Butterflies (correction, apparently they did have a nectar source according to this article)?  Have they ever tried to grow Milkweed in space?  I think it would have been an interesting experiment to have these Monarchs emerge from their Chrysalises, float over to a Milkweed plant that perhaps was growing well under artificial light, sip on some nectar from the plant (or the Gatorade as it turns out (see article above), then lay a few hundred eggs, then repeat the cycle.

And yet one more question that comes to mind.  If Monarch’s use their antennae as a sort of GPS for their migration, what happens when they are in space?  I’m not sure if sunlight even is available (viewable through a window or something?) on the Space Station, but it might make for an interesting experiment at some point.  If the Monarchs could somehow have a view of the Sun, would they attempt to fly in some certain direction?

Then again, I’m no space scientist and for all I know to do this type of experiment in space would cost millions of dollars.  I also don’t understand gravity (or lack thereof), or how the Space Station works, so maybe my great research ideas are just a bunch of nonsense.

Anyone have any additional thoughts or comments?

I just found this link that has a brief video showing the Monarch Caterpillars.  It’s pretty interesting (if you are into Butterflies) watching these two Monarch Caterpillars fight with one another.

Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar Forming Chrysalis On Pool

We also have lots of Monarch Caterpillars feeding on the Milkweed.  Look how fat this Caterpillar is!

Monarch Caterpillar Eating Milkweed

Monarch Caterpillars acting like 2 bulls getting ready to charge.

Monarch Caterpillar Fight

They then tried to just stare each other down before banging heads again.

Monarch Caterpillar Stare Down

The picture below was one of the larger Caterpillars we have right now, but we saw a variety of sizes.

Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed