The Monarch caterpillar that I featured in a couple previous posts died about three weeks ago, just before it was about to molt one last time and pupate. My sadness at finding it lying lifeless a couple feet from its milkweed plant seemed out of proportion. I did not have the heart to post about… Continue reading Danaus plexippus Larva: Fodder for Ants
Category: Nature
California Sister
A friend and I were finishing up an early bicycle ride before the heat set in when we noticed a California Sister butterfly. We had just finished our climbing for the day. Our water bottles were empty so we stopped at a water spigot on our way down Stunt Road to refill them. The area around the water spigot was damp.… Continue reading California Sister
Danaus plexippus Selects a Leaf, Powers Up the Buzz Saw
Garden monster video taken with my camera phone. Gorgeous gorging garden monster.
Danaus plexippus Larva: Eating Machine
I found this caterpillar in our garden on Friday July 8. On Sunday I moved it to another Narrow Leaf milkweed plant that is larger than the one on which it hatched, because the original plant was too small and running out of leaves to eat. The Monarch female typically lays only one egg per plant and milkweed… Continue reading Danaus plexippus Larva: Eating Machine