Each Monarch larva goes through five stages of growth, called instars, between the time it hatches from the egg until it enters the pupal stage. The larva molts at the end of each instar, so that it can grow into the next stage. During this process, it eats only milkweed foliage, and grows to almost 2,000 times its original mass.
A late fifth instar Monarch will then crawl away from the milkweed plant it was feeding on to find a secure location, where it forms a silk pad and hangs upside down in a J shape, before shedding its skin one last time to expose the bright green chrysalis. In this image, the larva on the right has attached its pad to the edge of a clay flower pot, and has drawn itself up into the classic "J" shape. On the left is one that has completed the final molt to expose its bejewelled green chrysalis. http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2022/6/11/metamorphosis K-5 IIs, smc DA 35 mm F 2.8 Macro Limited Comments, criticisms, questions, and suggestions 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.
