Date: 06/09/2016

Number: 108

We collected 101 eggs from our showy and common milkweed until nightfall on June 6th.

On June 8th, I gathered 7 more eggs, wishing I had room for more. I then ordered 100 more floral tubes and 6 more monarch castles.

Three of the 7 eggs were near each other on a common milkweed bud and were positioned in such a way that it would make a good photo. My husband, a professional photographer, was delighted, and watched it carefully. On June 9th, he set up his macro gear, Canon 7D II with a 65mm lens that goes up to 5 times life size. After taking a few photographs, he filmed one of the eggs hatching, which then fed on its egg shell a couple minutes. It then crawled to one of the another, yet-to-hatch eggs with the caterpillar just beginning to move within. When the larva began eating that egg shell, Leo zoomed in more to document what was happening. It penetrated the egg shell and made a small hole. The caterpillar inside was still high in the shell, but not at the top. Looking close at a still shot, Leo could see two indentations in the top of the head, but could not tell if they were bite marks. The larva left and a short time later the second egg hatched. It never did eat any of its own egg shell, but did eat a lot of the one that was still occupied. It would eat and rest, eat and rest for, for almost three hours. All of the feeding was just around the corner, so to speak, and we could never tell if the one inside was being bitten. The one inside never moved during the second larva's visit so we assumed it died during or shortly after the first visit. The second larva left and never returned. Leo focused in as close as he could, and it was still impossible to see any bite marks on the unfortunate caterpillar still within its egg shell.

Emigrant, MT

Latitude: 45.4 Longitude: -110.7

Observed by: Dorothy
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