TALLYHO BUTTERFLY FARM
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The Monarch Butterfly (latin name Danaus plexippus) is a very common butterfly to see in Northern states. Pennsylvania specifically has a wild population of Monarchs from around Late May to Early October. Southern states, however, have a year-round population of Monarch butterflies. Instead of migrating to Mexico like they do in northern states when it gets cold, since it never gets cold down there they keep flying the full year and don't hibernate at all. There are also different roosting places, one of them being Southern California. This one here is a male monarch nectaring on some Tropical Milkweed (A. currivasica).
Once a female Monarch finds her host plant (A. spp), they will fly around in search for the perfect leaf. Monarch butterflies lay their tiny eggs on the undersides of leaves. In the wild, they will lay one egg per plant, but in our breeding greenhouses, the Monarchs tend to either not have a preference or the amount of butterflies in the greenhouse makes it so we mainly find giant clusters of eggs anywhere on the plant. Eventually, we have to change out the milkweed cuttings so that they don't overload the plant with too many eggs at one time. This makes it so we can control the amount of eggs that are laid at a time comparing to the amount of food we have.
This close-up image shows the egg being laid in real-time! You can see the abdomen pushing out the egg onto the leaf. This is the egg we will be using for our life-cycle study.
Here is a cluster of eggs on one leaf. Normally in the wild this wouldn't happen unless the milkweed was a newborn shoot, or there was an excess amount of Monarchs in the area.
Day 1, 7/4/24. 9:20 AM. Temp: 79F. This begins the first day of the Monarch's life cycle. The egg is yellow, and you can see the ridges on the sides of the egg.
Day 2, 7/5/24. 5:28 PM. Temp: 83F. This is day 2 as an egg. The egg is the same as yesterday. Usually, it takes around 4-5 days for the egg to hatch.
Day 4, 7/7/24. 4:27 PM. Temp: 81F. This is day 4 as an egg. You can see the caterpillar inside the egg (the black part at the tip of the egg is it's head.) It is about to hatch.
Day 4, 7/7/24. 9:42 PM. Temp: 77F. This begins day 1 as a caterpillar! The caterpillar is around 2 mm long right now, but over the next 2 weeks, it will grow to around 2,500x its original size!
Day 6, 7/9/24. 12:23 PM. Temp: 86F. Day 3 as a caterpillar. The caterpillar is still around 2mm long. It is almost ready to molt into it's 2nd "instar". Caterpillars molt like snakes around 4-5 times in their lives, each time getting bigger and bigger.
Day 7, 7/10/24. 10:59 AM. Temp: 83F. Day 4 as a caterpillar. The caterpillar is now a 2nd instar and you can see its famous yellow, white, and black colorings. They also have very small, but visible filaments.
Day 8, 7/13/24. 3:42 PM. Temp: 88F. Day 5 as a caterpillar. The caterpillar is growing fast, it should turn into a 3rd instar very soon!
Day 12, 7/15/24. 8:58 PM. Temp: 76F. Day 9 as a caterpillar. The caterpillar is growing rapidly (it's already a 3rd instar), and under a microscope you can clearly see the filaments and its coloring. The caterpillar is still pretty small - it fattens up mostly in the last 2 instars. During this time is when the caterpillar starts to need a constant supply of food to have enough energy to form a chrysalis and become a butterfly.
Day 14, 7/17/24. 1:33 PM. Temp: 86F. Day 11 as a caterpillar. The caterpillar is now in the 4th instar, only one more instar to go! The filaments have grown a lot since the 3rd instar, and is greatly bigger. The back filaments stay short, but the front filaments grow very long and become a sort of sensory tool for the caterpillars in later instars since they don't have that good of vision.
Day 17, 7/17/24. 9:20 AM. Temp: 78F. Day 14 as a caterpillar. The caterpillar is in its final instar, and has been for around a day. In a couple of days or so it will be ready to form its chrysalis. One 5th instar caterpillar can completely defoliate a leaf of milkweed in around 1 hour, but in groups, they can fully defoliate the surrounding foliage in around 1 ½ days.
Day 18, 7/18/24. 11:04 PM. Temp: 74F. Day 15 as a caterpillar. The caterpillar has formed the shape of a J and is hanging upside down. It will stay like this for around another day or 1 ½ days until it is ready to form its chrysalis.
Day 21, 7/17/24. 7:27 AM. Temp: 75F. Day 1 as a chrysalis. The chrysalis formed on day 19, but I only have a photo of it hardened on day 21. Monarch chrysalides have a green color to them to blend in with milkweed leaves, and the golden dots you see on the chrysalis are breathing holes so that the developing butterfly doesn't suffocate inside the chrysalis.
Day 30, 7/26/24. 6:05 PM. Temp: 80F. Day 9 as a chrysalis. The chrysalis is beginning to darken, you can see the outline of the butterfly's wings from inside the chrysalis.
Day 33, 7/29/24. 7:21 AM. Temp: 79F. Day 1 as a butterfly! The female Monarch eclosed from its chrysalis a little bit before this photo. Butterflies like to emerge from their chrysalids in the early morning hours of the day, between 6-9 AM.
Day 33, 7/29/24. 10:05 AM. Temp: 84F. Day 1 as a butterfly. I put the butterfly onto a Butterfly Bush in one of our native pollinator gardens. Since it is a female, it will grow up to mate with another male and lay more eggs, continuing the cycle again. Brushfooted butterflies such as Monarchs usually live around 2-4 weeks as a butterfly during the summer months, but the generation of Monarchs that migrate down to Mexico and other warmer places during the winter tend to live around 7-9 months, finally dying after laying their first eggs in early next spring.