Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle

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International Internet CollaborationSid, photographer and writer, 76 years old living in New Zealand,

Chuck, PowerPoint creator, 77 years old living in Florida, USA.My name is Chuck Melvin, I am 77 and have Parkinson’s. Please visit

our website at: http://www.butterflylifecycle.net

Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle My name is Chuck Melvin, I am 77 years old and have

Parkinson’s Disease. My wife, Marsha, and I have married for 35 years. We need your help to pay for my increasing

medical bills. Please visit our website:www.ButterflyLifeCycle.net

My e-mail address isChuckMelvin@ButterflyLifeCycle.netPlease e-mail me to make suggestions or

comments on how to improve our website.

Monarch Butterfly Egg

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Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

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Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis

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Monarch Butterfly

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The next 20 slides illustrate the Monarch Life Cycle. All the Photos and technical writings were created by Sid and posted on Flickr.

Sid Mosdell, contributor to Flickr Go see Sid’s genius on Flickr. leave glowing comments http://www.flickr.com/photos/sidm/sets/72157624547070910/

Sid’s Bio - I'm 76, married, and have livedwith my wife in Picton (a small seaside townof about 4000 in the South Island) sinceretiring from the rat-race in Auckland (New Zealand's biggest city) 11 years ago. I've been a fairly keen amateur photographersince my teen years. My switch from film to digital occurred about 8 years ago andI discovered on-line photo sharing via Flickrabout 5 years ago. My two current cameras are a Micro Four Thirds format PanasonicLumix and a Panasonic Lumix FZ150.

Monarch Butterfly Female Monarch butterfly deposits an egg onto the underside of a milkweed (swan plant) leaf. The butterfly usually lays its eggs on leaves but occasionally they are found on milkweed stems. Last

year I posted three photos of a monarch caterpillar's transition to a chrysalis. Unfortunately at that time I never did get around to

expanding the series any further. Now that we're well into a wet mid-winter here in New Zealand I've had some time to sit indoors

and sift through my Monarch photos. This is the first of twenty images depicting stages in a Monarch's life cycle.

Monarch Butterfly Egg A Monarch butterfly egg on the stem of a Swan Plant milkweed. This egg (about the size of an aphid) took eight days to hatch.

Monarch Butterfly CaterpillarThis tiny (1/6” long) eating machine has very recently hatched. Its first meal was to nibble at the shell of its egg and now it is tackling

the leaf of a Swan Plant. It is still too small to penetrate through the leaf but within a day it will start leaving tell-tale gaps in the

milkweed's leaves. When a caterpillar outgrows its skin it molts, or sloughs off, its old skin. The stage between molts is an instar.

Monarch caterpillars have five instars.

Monarch Butterfly CaterpillarMonarch Caterpillar— Second Instar. 

The caterpillar is now three days old and 7/16” long.

Monarch Butterfly CaterpillarThis Monarch caterpillar, now into its fifth instar and about 2” long, has just shed its skin. The skin, which can be seen lying on the leaf behind it, is usually eaten by the caterpillar shortly after molting.

This caterpillar's next molt will result in a chrysalis.

Monarch Butterfly CaterpillarMonarch caterpillar on a Swan Plant milkweed, fifth instar, about

2 3/16” long and close to pupation. It is now about three weeks old. however this time-span depends very much on temperature and

can vary considerably. When they are ready to pupate the caterpillars tend to wander around, sometimes relatively far afield,

presumably in search of a suitable chrysalis-friendly site.

Monarch Butterfly CaterpillarThe Monarch caterpillar readies itself for pupation. It has spun a

cushion of silk by which it attaches itself to a suitable surface and hangs head-down in a J-shape.

Monarch Butterfly CaterpillarAfter being suspended from its silk cushion for about 18 hours the Monarch caterpillar starts to straighten out. This is the prelude to

shedding its larval skin for the last time. Look carefully at the image and you will see the skin just starting to split behind its head

before being pushed upward.

Monarch Butterfly PupaBy wriggling, as well as rhythmically contracting and expanding, the

Monarch larva (caterpillar) pushes its skin upwards. The jade green pupa (chrysalis), at this stage still very soft, can now clearly be seen.

Monarch Butterfly PupaThe pupa now starts wriggling and gyrating energetically to finally

dislodge its skin. This Monarch took 12 minutes to complete the molting process.

.

Monarch Butterfly Pupa This beautiful new jade-colored Monarch pupa is still soft and wrinkled. Some areas of the adult butterfly-to-be are already apparent. Within the next 1 to 2 hours its casing will harden,

smooth out and assume the familiar shape of a mature chrysalis.

Monarch Butterfly ChrysalisThe Monarch chrysalis, now smooth with a hard wax-like casing, is

a lovely jade green color with gold spots, hence the name 'chrysalis', from the Greek word 'chrysos' for gold.

Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis To ButterflyShortly before the butterfly is due to emerge the Monarch chrysalis

darkens significantly and the orange color of the wings can be clearly seen through its casing.

Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis To ButterflyThe transparent casing of the chrysalis has now cracked open and

the Monarch butterfly is emerging, clinging with its legs to the casing to protect itself from falling to the ground. The pupal stage of the Monarch is usually from 10 to 14 days long. However the

time-frame is dependent on the season and the ambient temperature. This pupal stage lasted for 23 days.

Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis To ButterflyStill clinging to the empty shell the damp Monarch butterfly pumps

fluid (hemolymph) from its distended body into its wings. In this photo the wings are slowly expanding but are still quite stubby and

wrinkled.

Monarch Butterfly The newly emerged adult Monarch butterfly still retains a firm grip

on its empty chrysalis shell.

Monarch Butterfly Seven minutes have elapsed since this adult Monarch butterfly

emerged from its chrysalis. The butterfly's wings have expanded but have yet to harden properly.

Monarch Butterfly A newly emerged adult Monarch butterfly, its wings fully expanded and by now probably fully hardened and functional, slowly makes its way upwards towards a high point on the Swan Plant milkweed.

Monarch Butterfly About two hours after emerging from its chrysalis this beautiful adult Monarch spreads its wings in preparation for its first flight. The butterfly in this photo is a male. Males have a clearly visible

black spot on each hind wing from which pheromones are released. The next image in this series, also of a recently emerged adult

Monarch, is a comparative photo of a female.

Monarch Butterfly Freshly emerged from her chrysalis this female Monarch will soon make her first flight. The webbing on a female's wings is thicker

than the webbing on a male's wings and females do not have the black spots on the hind wings that are a characteristic of males

(see previous photo in this set).

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