Monarch Butterfly Larvae and Pupa

Posted by Ellie
There are two monarch butterfly caterpillars, striped white, black and yellow with black antennae, on green leaves of a milkweed plant.
Monarch butterfly caterpillars

There is a wonderful children’s garden in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, where I discovered that I am still a child as I enjoyed it just as much as any of the youngsters. When I visited there in September, 2015, I was thrilled to see these colourful monarch butterfly larvae as well as this pupa, on true milkweed.

a hard looking almost cylindrical case is hanging from a stem of a plant. It has a rim of what looks like small white bumps two thirds of the way up, before the cylinder comes to a rounded point at the top.
Monarch butterfly pupa

I had never seen either of these and only identified them with the help of the guide who was happy to explain all about the life cycle of this beautiful (and threatened) species. The guide, herself passionately interested in and very knowledgeable about monarchs, showed us the plants that they preferred and helped us hunt until we found what we were looking for. It was a windy day, though still warm and it was not easy to get a photograph as the plants were blowing around so much, but I was glad to get these to share.

More information about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly can be found here:
http://monarchlab.org/biology-and-research/biology-and-natural-history/breeding-life-cycle/
And about the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens here: http://www.mainegardens.org
My posts are all on my blog: https://www.elliekennard.ca.

51 Responses

  24. Fascinating shot Ellie and I agree with you that these creatures are amazing to watch but our buggy lunch theme is for predation shots of bugs by other bugs, spiders or whatever eats bugs really.
    Many thanks for thinking of us though. 🙂

    Reply

  33. +Dylan Johnson I would love to go to a real butterfly garden, I would imagine that they are out of this world! This children's garden had a pond and different habitats, especially to attract different species, which was such a beautiful idea. Thanks Dylan.

    Thanks +Giselle Savoie – they are just gorgeous, I agree.

    +Ashok Bambhaniya yes indeed.

    I have seen the butterflies here a couple of years ago and one of Steven's photographs of them is on my Wildlife collection. But they haven't been back for two years. I am planting some of the swamp milkweed plants which they prefer, in the hopes of attracting them, or at least providing them with ideal habitat. Thanks +Ursula Klepper

    Isn't it wonderful +Fiza Hassi? I do too.

    Reply

  47. We saw only a couple of Monarchs this year Ellie. I hope next year will be better.

    We were traipsing around Maine at about the same time as you were. We got to Harrington on Sept. 10. 🙂

    Reply

  50. bonsoir ellie vraiment excusez moi ce dérangement moi je me nomme
    Christian lavoir je suis d'origine français célibataire sent enfants
    j'aimerais fait ample connaissance avec vous si cela ne vous gène
    pas merci de me donne suite as mon mail

    Reply

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