#i raised monarchs in one of those little mesh enclosures as a kid

[selescope]

drinking lemonade that is basically just sugar water so i feel like a little butterfly

[hangonimevolving]

Au Revoir, my little friends!

So an update on the Monarch Butterfly situation:  we had a number of friends join (or perhaps I should say REJOIN) our household this week!

On Friday, June 5th, we had the exciting experience of witnessing our first four monarchs eclose - that is, emerge from their chrysalises!  It was pretty spectacular to behold.  We sat mesmerized for the approximately 5-10 minutes it takes for the butterflies to emerge, then efficiently sit still while pumping fluid from their thorax cavities into their wings, to straighten them out completely, before the fluids on the exterior of the wings helps to stiffen the wings into their appropriate position for flight.  How amazing!

The following day, we saw two more butterflies join the gang!  So of our initial batch of nine caterpillars, we now had six fully-formed, flightworthy butterflies in our custody.

The kids had named several of the caterpillars, back when they were caterpillars and not butterflies.  There names were: Stink, Slink, Wink, Sink, and Sudalo.  And yes, those are only five names, and yet we had nine caterpillars.  And no, we didn’t exactly know who was who.

While it was really wonderful to be able to see them and enjoy their beauty - we knew that as soon as they seemed ready, it would be better to send them into the great outdoors where they could find their own food sources, and continue on with their miscellaneous butterfly activities.  Our decision to help them move on with their lives was also made more steadfast by a couple of other things:  firstly, Dr. Spouse and I were able to plant our brand-new butterfly garden areas in our backyard today!  So we knew there were ample butterfly-approved favorites right there in our own backyard for them, if they wished to stick around and enjoy them.  Also, the weather today was pretty good - mostly sunny, with low winds.  By Sunday night or Monday morning, it looks like we’ll be getting some rains - so I thought it better to let them go today rather than risk running into bad weather.  And then, there was a third important reason why we decided they were better off getting on their way....

Err, yes, our Pixel girl, who had hardly noticed the giant mesh enclosure full of caterpillars and chrysalises all these days, was suddenly befuddled and flummoxed by the large clear box full of GIANT, FLAPPING insects, and had an awful lot of interest in them.  We could tell by her body language and persistence in sitting there, just staring with pupils blown wide open, that we were probably tempting fate by keeping the healthy, clearly able-bodied and flying butterflies in our house for too long. 

So it was time to say goodbye.  We took a couple of pictures for posterity...

And then, it was time for the release.  It took a few moments for Dr. Spouse and I to strategize how exactly to carry the enclosure to our backyard, because a) it still had a large potted milkweed plant inside, which was cumbersome and somewhat heavy, plus there were still three chrysalises inside and we did not want to disturb them, or risk hurting the six butterflies who were fluttering around in there.

But we managed it, and then we had ourselves a wonderful “Bon Voyage” ceremony for our butterflies before letting them free.

What a thrill!  Sigh.  The circle of life.

We still have our three more chrysalises to go, and I anticipate that one will be ready possibly by late tomorrow or Monday, and the other two maybe by Wednesday?  We shall see.

But the kids, now besotted with this whole butterfly thing, have had even more plans and schemes cooking than I have.

Introducing.... Lalloo.

Lalloo has a funny story:  So, remember how I said that our neighbor gave us nine caterpillars?  Ha, funny thing.  Turns out, there were TEN.  Nine of the ten were the large, nearly-chrysalis ready ones that I’ve been talking about all this time.  But apparently, there was a teeny, tiny, hardly visible caterpillar hidden somewhere in the milkweed plant, and we had no idea... The other nine caterpillars essentially DECIMATED the milkweed plant, there wasn’t a single leaf left by the time the final one made the chrysalis, and then they all pupated but we left the plant in there out of laziness/lack of desire to disturb them/I dunno.  Then suddenly one morning, when all the chrysalises were silently hanging there, we saw some movement of a a piece of the spindly, sad-looking stem, and I gently reached in to turn the pot around - only to discover a little caterpillar there, way smaller than any of the others.  I quickly moved him into his own plastic container with a paper towel and some milkweed leaves, and we kept him in there for a couple of days, refreshing his paper towel and food supply as needed.

We named him “Lalloo,” which basically translates to “dumbass” or “slow fella” in Gujarati :) But I promise, we use that term affectionately :). Because, he was truly a lalloo, slower than his peers, not even bothering to reveal himself until he had nearly starved.

Anyway.  I had intended to hold out a few days, keep Lalloo in a plastic container till the other critters emerge and we set them free - but Lalloo the dumbass in the last two days has essentially doubled in size, and today I noticed he was looking a little slower than usual.  Uh oh - with the other butterflies, a sudden growth spurt and a slow-down in activity was the first sign that they were thinking of pupating.  I worried maybe Lalloo had found himself at that stage already.  So now that the mesh enclosure has been vacated of all flapping butterflies, I decided, even though it isn’t ideal to put him in with a few chrysalises that are nearly ready to emerge, I’d take a chance and do it.  There’s only one of him, and if he decides to pupate and gets in there before the others eclose, it should be fine.  Stay tuned... it remains to be seen if I’ve made an error in judgment here.  But I’m not to worried about it.

There’s more!  The kids weren’t happy enough just to have Lalloo.  They adamantly insisted that they wanted to raise some butterflies “all the way from the egg.”  So one morning last week, a monarch butterfly from (I think) our neighbor’s yard visited our butterfly garden, and we saw her sitting repeatedly on one of our milkweed plants, lingering on various leaves for a few moments at a time.  We have literally watched every monarch butterfly on YouTube Kids at this point, and could tell she was laying her eggs.  So that afternoon, we went out to find some leaves with eggs on them, and whaddya know - we found some.

I allowed the kids to select three leaves with eggs (one egg per leaf, or so I thought) to bring in.

Within a day or two, we had evidence that at least one egg had hatched - we could see a little bit of powdery black frass (caterpillar poop) on the paper towel in our container.  Sure enough....

Can you see it?  It’s at the top of that leaf, the tiny little light green line that is about 1/10 the length of the top of my fingernail.  Soooo tiny!

We have three, possibly four of these babies - still aren’t sure, because the leaves have curled a little as they’ve dried, and I think the baby caterpillars are kind of nestled in the curled part of the leaf but I don’t want to try and uncurl it and risk disturbing them yet.  They’ll grow fast, so we will probably know in a day or two what exactly we are dealing with here.  But even if its four, that will be easier than nine on our first go-round!  And I am assuming our other residents, including Lalloo, will have literally flown the coop long before these guys are even ready to make their way into it.

The three baby caterpillars that we know of are for now named: Lipster, Hipster, and Master.  Names chosen by Dey this time around, and I have no idea how on earth he came up with these.  

So!  The circle of life continues.  I am going to be buying a LOT more milkweed this summer, I can just tell.