My most recent endeavor in raising Monarch butterflies was a group of larvae from Monarch Watch. Since the previous brood had devoured the smaller potted Milkweed plants, I used my largest net cage for the new fellows, who were very tiny upon arrival.
In addition to some smaller potted plants and some cut foliage from plants growing in our yard, I placed a fairly large potted milkweed in the cage, and left it there the entire time. There didn't seem to be as many chrysalises as I had expected clinging to the top of the cage when all the larvae had metamorphosed. When I removed the large pot from the cage, I discovered the reason: a number had decided to hang their chrysalises on the side of the pot, rather than climbing to the top of the cage. Actually, there was one more than shown in the below image; I accidentally knocked one off as I was removing the pot. I placed that one on some paper towels, and it will probably still develop into an adult butterfly. I was somewhat amused by the manner in which they all crowded together on the pot, instead of spreading out as they usually do on the top of the cage. That reminded me of a little condo development, with all the units close together. http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2021/7/9/condo K-r, smc DA 35 mm Macro F 2.8 Limited Comments, questions, suggestions and criticisms are invited and appreciated. Dan Matyola *https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery <https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery>* -- %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-le...@pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
