Did you report your butterflies on the Monarch website Journey North? It tracks the migration using information that regular folks report from their yards.

Awesome to see Monarchs in March!

-Amy

I just reported her, Amy. 'Didn't realize there was a monarch journey reporting site.

Sherry

I noticed yesterday that all the monarch eggs had 'disappeared' so I checked today and found a hatchling caterpillar. It is SO tiny, I had to zoom in a lot with my camera/phone then crop it more to make it visible in a picture. But I'm really happy to be having monarch cats in March!

Now that I look at it, it looks like a skipper, but it has to be a monarch. I'll have to look up what monarch hatchlings look like - I've forgotten.

Sherry

I just looked it up, and monarch hatchlings do have a dark head.

Congratulations! And thank you for reporting your sightings. I am a bit worried about my milkweed not showing up yet, so I checked the map. The first adult Monarch are about a 3 hour car ride away.

The tiniest are entirely black. I have not tried to determne for how many hours they remain black. I just know, whenever I see non-black tinies, that they are not recently hatched. Your photo makes me want to have a magnified look at some in the morning.

Today's tinies already are striped. I always see either black or striped, giving me to conclude that they do not transition through solid light.

Also, turns out that your attention to the head was well placed, because the head-to-body ratio is strikingly higher than that of Monarch.

Four, I don't really live in milkweed country (central U.S. seems to have much more MW) so I don't know that much about the caterpillars. When I have gotten cats on the Mexican MW I bought, usually in late summer or early fall, I go out to the garden and find 1" cats that look entirely like late instar monarch cats, usually at the top of the plant. I've never studied the earliest instars. This MW never even lost its leaves this winter, much less die. The southeast corner of the house is great - maybe these plants will be here for a long time, and I can raise a lot more monarchs!

Sherry

> "never studied the earliest instars."

That little guy brought you into it. :- )

Digital cameras often blend adjacent color boundaries, and sometimes will exaggerate a feature; so, be sure to reality-check with eyes (plus magnifying glass if desired). At close view in light, stripes if any would have been evident even without magnifier.

In poor light, I thought that I had found one that still looked black to the eye; but in more light, striped. Then photos. Stripes not always evident in magnified photos taken in strong indirect light (sun blocked). Sherry's is Monarch.

Sunlight directly on these:

Ok, here's one that would look black in daylight. No stripes. 40W incandescent bulb eight inches above, because he did not make it out of the egg before dark.

Next, closer to bulb, and camera closer, it doesn't look black:

Love the education I am getting here! Miss Sherry, hope your little ones are doing well.

I've been looking for them, but can't find any caterpillars. I don't know if they've died or if they're as elusive as they usually are at this stage, hiding in the flowers and newest leaves at the top. If they show up, I'll let you know. 'Sure hope they're okay!

Sherry

The caterpillars become more bad-flavored with milkweed-toxins as they eat more milkweed, which means the newest babies, like your first instar caterpillars, that haven't been eating milkweed for long, sometimes become someone's (bird or bug) lunch. I hope yours are only hiding!

This page from Monarch Watch shows the growth of the caterpillars and how they change:

https://www.monarchwatch.org/biology/cycle1.htm

Thank you, Sherry, for the updates! It will be awhile before I see monarchs in my area (north of Atlanta), but I am feeling all reassured that they are on their way.

I squinted my eyes off and found two very small monarch cats hiding in the flowers and newest growth on the milkweed - 'hope there are more! I may bring them in to finish raising myself. Does anybody know if lizards eat monarch caterpillars? This must be the lizard capitol of the world, they're everywhere! When I lived in the country, they never bothered my cats, went strictly for insects, but then I never raised that many monarchs.

Can you find the little caterpillar?

Sherry

P.S. If you click on the picture, you can see the cat much better!

Found it! Your milkweed looks so nice, not an aphid in sight.

My phone camera must not be any good, Iris, unfortunately there are aphids all over the plants! I'd hose them down if not for the caterpillars on them.

Sherry

There are at least 3 cats, probably 4 or maybe more - they do such a good job of hiding! They're still little, but growing -

Sherry

Set up a cage, found six monarch cats so far.

Sherry

Ha ha. Couldn’t resist taking them in? I still haven’t seen a Monarch. My milkweeds are ready. The common one is more than ready. It’s coming out of the walkway.

Do you get Queens there? If so, then be alert for this :

I did not know that it was among the Monarch captives until I changed the leaves.

Either from collected egg, or was one of the caterpillars taken after sundown.

Found another one this morning! This is a treasure hunt!

Sherry

Got my first Monarch sighting and eggs today!

Congrats, Iris! I found 6 more caterpillars today, and I'm up to 13!

Sherry

Wow congrats on your Monarchs Sherry and Iris. That's very exciting!

We have only early bulbs like crocus and Pieris blooming here, and only the earliest perennials are peeping up. The milkweeds won't show up for awhile.

Sometimes the Monarchs don't lay eggs in the yard until late July or even August, but the last couple years it has been late June/early July. Last year I was surprised to find a little 2nd instar cat on the common milkweed in the front garden around July 4th. I had no idea a female had come by and laid eggs so early in the year, hadn't yet seen a sign of a Monarch.

July?! And here I am always complaining the butterfly less time is too long.

Don't you live up in Michigan, Terrene? I've seen on TV that there's been a big snow in the north - I'd be tired of it by now, for sure! Here's hoping spring comes your way soon!

Just found caterpillar #14!

Sherry

No I live in Mass, west of Boston, and yes our Monarch season is short. It's longer if you live along the coast, or maybe if you lived in a sheltered warm location, where the temperatures are moderated. But our nights get cold in my 'hood by early October and the Monarchs that eclose in late September or early October get outta here ASAP.

Sherry are you going to have enough milkweed to feed your babies?

I think so, terrene. They're getting pretty big now, eating a lot, but I don't think it will be too much longer before they make their chrysalides. I planted 6 MW plants, but they came in a big pot and each pot actually had 3 small plants in it. They've each grown a lot, so I think these 18 plants will be enough. I know of a good stand of A. lanceolata on Hwy. 49 that I've used in the past when I didn't have enough - 'hope I won't have to use it.

Sherry

P.S. After a very windy day and a lot of rain last night, I found #15!

Found #16 the other day. Yesterday, I noticed a good many of the cats had gone to the ceiling of the cage and gotten real still, like they do before pupating. Last night, most of these were in the "J" - they haven't made their chrysalides this morning, but I'm eagerly watching!

Sherry

I like that pre-pupation posture because precious food may no longer need go to them. Prior to J, silk pad is best indication that a caterpillar is decided. Often some will resume wandering for food. When those caterpillars again leave food and return to top, then it is more certain that they are finished.

Yes, four, I've got plenty of food left, so if another monarch arrived tomorrow and laid eggs, I'd have food for the cats. Still more of them have gone to the ceiling, and more are in the "J" - YAY!!

Sherry

Wow. That was quick. My one kind of faded looking Monarch has been back 5 days in a row now to lay eggs. Today a fresh looking one showed up. And a lady.

I wish I'd see an American lady, Iris - they're so beautiful! Your fresh looking monarch is a male, so he won't be laying you any eggs. Congrats on the eggs - hope you have enough leaves to feed your future monarch caterpillars!

There are 3 or 4 monarch chrysalides on the top of the cage tonight, should be more tomorrow!

Sherry

Ha, one of these days I will learn, I guess I just assumed since he was so interested in the milkweeds. At least I didn’t crawl around looking for eggs after him.

All of the monarch cats have made their chrysalides - here's some of them all bunched up in a corner -

Sherry

This is just great!

I didn’t look too closely, but where I looked it’s still eggs. It was just 39 degrees this morning though after the thunderstorms and rain from Friday and yesterday.

Got caterpillars!

Woohoo! Congrats, Iris!

I was surprised how cold hardy monarch cats are, too. 'Probably shouldn't be, though, considering how cold that place is in Mexico (mountains?) where the adults go every winter!

Sherry

Bad picture, but I'm about to get my first monarch!

Sherry

Wow. Thinks are really moving fast at your place! My caterpillars are still pretty small.

Has either of you been seeing egg-caterpillar-chysalis activities of any other families?

She emerged this afternoon. Here's a picture of her in the cage while she was hanging out, then a picture of her just before I released her -

There are about 9 chrysalides in the cages whose bodies you can see - they will be emerging tomorrow!

Sherry

So beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

I released 7 monarchs a little while ago, 4 males/3 females or maybe 5 males/2 females. One flew out so quickly it may have had those scent glands, and I just didn't see them. 'Made me sad to let 'em go.

Sherry

I released the last one - 'hope they know their way north!

Sherry

What a great success!

I excerpted a clip of each of two longer videos that I took yesterday. The URLs are in text after this graphic containing information that can help in viewing the clips.

First clip https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aqpk967ef6X6hHcHro08Uhd5JPql

Second clip https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aqpk967ef6X6hHax--hE34IJvQg7