Monarch Caterpillar and Pupa Danaus plexippus
Monarch butterfly egg on milkweed stem.
Small Monarch caterpillar amongst milkweed flower.
Tiny Monarch hatchling (bottom left) and full-sized caterpillar.
Monarch caterpillars depend on Milkweed, their only host plant, for food and the poison that makes them taste bad to predators.
Fully grown caterpillar looking for safe place to pupate
Monarch caterpillar climbs rose bud
Monarch caterpillar falls into rose
Caterpillar rose up.
On a rose leaf near where another is already in a chrysalis.
Preparing to pupate.
The caterpillar attaches itself with strong silk to the underside of leaf or stem and hangs in pre-pupa mode.
Pupating.
Shedding the caterpillar skin.
The chrysalis starts as a gem with gold and green bands.
The hard, polished chrysalis has small gold studs like a jewel.
The butterfly's wing shape and veins can already be seen.
The chrysalis appears to change colour as the butterfly darkens.
Eventually the Monarch emerges
with very crumpled wings.
As the newly-emerged butterfly clings to its chrysalis case for comfort, the body elongates
and the butterfly's wings fill out.
Links:
Back to Monarch butterfly