Caterpillar Update.
There are eleven Monarch caterpillars on my milkweeds as of a few minutes ago. These are the four oldest/biggest ones - the ones that were chewing on the flowers last post. They are now 4.5-5 cms. long.
Medium-sized
And this is (a fuzzy foto of) the brand-new baby. It is about one centimeter long (and it is on a small tender plant); it will be twice that size by the end of the day.
According to Wikipedia and other sources:
The eggs hatch after 4 days.
The caterpillars consume the egg case, then feed on the milkweed, sequestering substances called cardenolides, a type of cardiac glycoside.
During this stage of life, energy is stored in the form of fat and nutrients to get them through the non-feeding pupa stage.
There are eleven Monarch caterpillars on my milkweeds as of a few minutes ago. These are the four oldest/biggest ones - the ones that were chewing on the flowers last post. They are now 4.5-5 cms. long.
Medium-sized
And this is (a fuzzy foto of) the brand-new baby. It is about one centimeter long (and it is on a small tender plant); it will be twice that size by the end of the day.
According to Wikipedia and other sources:
The eggs hatch after 4 days.
The caterpillars consume the egg case, then feed on the milkweed, sequestering substances called cardenolides, a type of cardiac glycoside.
During this stage of life, energy is stored in the form of fat and nutrients to get them through the non-feeding pupa stage.
Awesome caterpillar pix K. thanks
ReplyDeleteI've been nurtuting butterfly weed this summer in hopes...
ReplyDelete