Those two cute caterpillars in the earlier photo are now luminescent chrysalis's. When I opened the safehouse up to clean out the old leaves and add fresh water, I found one of the caterpillar's had made its chrysalis right on one of the leaves! I have NEVER seen a caterpillar make its chrysalis on a leaf, and never found one in the wild either. Finding it was a surprise and a delight. Since the stalk was cut off and put in water, however, its leaves would not remain strong for long. I checked on the chrysalis daily to make sure it hadn't fallen, and, wouldn't you know it, one day there was yet another chrysalis hanging from another leaf right beside it.
Now the two are safely tied with threads and I taped them from the top, along with the other chrysalis's. Tonight another caterpillar is up there, finding the right spot to hang in its J and turn into a chrysalis, and three more caterpillars still devouring leaves.
On my run today, I actually saw a big caterpillar on a leaf. After I finished my run ( 3.3 miles, my longest yet...) I went back and got the whole milkweed plant, with the lovely caterpillar; they're both in the safehouse now...here s/he is:
June 12: Total 16 caterpillars
June 13, I found 2 on a leaf on our cool down walk after our run, bringing the total to 18 caterpillars
June 14: first chrysalis (as noted above!)
June 15: I found 2 more caterpillars in the field by Questar, bringing the total to 19 caterpillars, 1 chrysalis.
Upon arriving home, I'm pretty sure one tiny caterpillar did not make the trip. Sincerely very sorry little guy, life on a bicycle can be dangerous. Actual total: 18 caterpillars.
June 18: One is making it's chrysalis on the top.
I cleaned the safehouse out, and found one dead on a leaf. AND one chrysalis on a leaf. 16 caterpillars.
June 19: Found another caterpillar in the neighborhood park. Total caterpillars 18 Total chrysalis' 3
June 20: Found another medium sized caterpillar dead on a leaf, no apparent reason. Waaa.
Total caterpillars: 17
June 24: Found a big caterpillar in Pamela Park, Edina. Total caterpillars 4 Total chrysalis's 12
That leaves 2 MIA. Not sure what happened or where.
Tomorrow, I expect the first butterfly to emerge! See the middle one, turning "black," that's the first stage of the butterfly emerging.
Stay tuned...I will have photo's!
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