Out walking this morning, I spotted an unusual leaf right in my path: I bent down to investigate, and sadly discovered when I turned it over, that it was a dead Monarch Butterfly. I felt sad for it – yes, I know they have a short life and there must be millions dying every day, but one had died right at my feet, and it was beautiful and colourful and lay in all its glory, in my hand, motionless, where it should have been fluttering and busy doing what butterflies do. It was a good opportunity to take a closer look, as butterflies on the move are very hard to see clearly, and despite its apparent size, the body itself is tiny.
I know their life is short, generally only living 2 to 6 weeks. They have four stages in their lives - egg, larva (or caterpillar), pupa (or chrysalis), and adult, and the whole event takes a mere 30 days from being an egg to emerging as a magnificent butterfly. The Monarch Butterfly is fussy and lays her eggs on the milkweed plants.
They are generally bad parents in that they don’t care for their young, but at least lay them where they can feed after hatching! The eggs become caterpillars, and take about four days to hatch. The caterpillar doesn’t do much more than eat the milkweed in order to grow, and after around two weeks will be fully grown and will then attach itself to a leaf or stem with a fine silky thread so that it can start the process of metamorphosis into the third stage, the pupa (or chrysalis). Credits: Unsplash; Author: sahil-muha.
