It's a girl!

As I was asking my 14-year-old, Wil, about his sleep over with a friend, I noticed some wings fluttering slowly inside the caterpillar container. I scared the daylights out of him as I shouted out to everyone that the caterpillar had emerged. Here she is: caterpillar #2 and she is a female Monarch! Note that there is no dot on each of the lower wings like the first one. She is still pumping the fluid from her abdomen into her wings and is still very fragile.

Her first meal which she didn't like very much. Note her proboscis unfurling.

Caterpillar #4 has entered into the j-formation but hasn't had his walkabout yet. I found him in this position as I cleaned their container today. Instead of having climbed to the tallest part of the container, he has attached himself onto a leaf. I hope that this will help him -- I've secured the leaf to the top of the container with a clothespin. Cross your fingers.

Oops! I just took a look at the container again, and caterpillar #4 has decided to not to go into j-stage. He must have been scared by the height. So, I've taken him down and he's back on the milkweed.

Caterpillar #6 is doing very, very well.

New kid on the block

Here is our new caterpillar #6. I found him on a leaf while restocking supplies.

Caterpillar #2 is doing well. You can see the Monarch butterfly shape inside the pupa!

And here is #4 eating away.

The traveler and the survivor

Here is caterpillar #5. I call him the traveler and the survivor. For and insect, he has a lot of personality. He loves of walk around and explore:

Last Wednesday he decided to go walk away from the milkweed leaves and ended up in the damp paper towels I use to hydrate the leaves. While cleaning their container, I threw the paper towels away and then realized that I could not find him anywhere. I asked Bob to get the paper towels out of the trash (by this time other things had been thrown on top of it) and I went through it all and found him! Here he is after being rescued. Lucky, lucky guy!

However, on Thursday, his luck ran out. He had decided to explore around the container and unfortunately ended up on this price sticker that I didn't get a chance to remove. He got stuck on the sticky backing and didn't make it.

Life and death

I don't know what happened but upon inspection of the Monarch container today, I found that caterpillar #3 had died.

He looked happy and healthy last night. So I can't explain why he died. Five and four are thriving, though.

And caterpillar #2 has shed his skin and is now a pupa!

Gotta go to Mexico!

We released the monarch butterfly yesterday ( (08-26-10) at a park in Mt. Rainier! We saw other Monarchs flying around so hopefully he will thrive there.

Here's a quick update on the other members of the family:

Caterpillar #2 ate a whole bunch yesterday and subsequently pooped up a storm last night. LOTS and LOTS of poop to clean up this morning! He completed his walkabout and has now found the highest place in the container to prepare for his pupa stage.

Here is caterpillar #3 who, I swear, tripled his size from yesterday (I guess I cannot blame caterpillar #2 for ALL the poop). Look how he drawves caterpillar #4.

Here's a close up of caterpillar #4.

And, here is an egg we just found two days ago. He is ready to hatch -- note the black dot at the top of the egg which means that he should be coming out soon.

Day 12: It's a boy!

I know I've been using "he" when talking about all the caterpillars in this blog. But today, this male Monarch emerged from his chrysalis! He is still pumping the fluid from his abdomen into his wings, so he is still very fragile at this point.

Other good news to share, his brother emerged from his egg, too! Welcome caterpillar #4.

And here is caterpillar #3 who has plumped up overnight.

And caterpillar #2 trying to lay low inside this milkweed leaf.

Looks like we will be off searching for new milkweed today to feed everybody.

Update: Here is the butterfly after two feedings today.

And here are the three caterpillars enjoying a fresh batch of milkweed.

Day 11: Three more days to go

Just wanted to note the color change that the pupa was going through. It's nearly time!

And, look at the difference in size in the two caterpillars. I had to move caterpillar #3 to another leaf because the leaf he decided to eat had the egg Wil and I found last time.

Here's the egg on the underside of the leaf.