Date: 09/07/2017

Number: 2

I spent more than 3 hours in the morning observing 2 Monarch 5th instar caterpillars in the garden at the Elizaville Deli. It was sunny and seasonably warm following a cool (low 50s) and rainy previous evening and overnight. I found the 2 cats on the same milkweed plants on which they were feeding yesterday. One of them had been working on that plant and its neighbor ing plant since Aug 24th, when it was a 1st instar. My visit this morning was well timed as this latter cat stopped eating and began moving. IDuring its explorations, it fell off the milkweed and had a soft landing on some ground vegetation. I offered it a dried out spider plant sprig and it climbed on. I put it back on the milkweed but once again it wanted to wander. Given the various spiders, etc around the floor of the garden, I again offered it a lift via the dried out spider leaf and allowed it to climb onto some very fresh green milkweed that was growing among a cluster of 5 feet high young oak trees...all very close together and forming a sheltering canopy. Seemed the most optimal place in the garden for it to molt and hang as a chrysalis. It spent the next hour or more exploring the oaks before settling under an oak leaf. The other 5th instar caterpillar continued to chomp away on a large, exposed milkweed leaf. I left in the early afternoon but plan to check them again later. The picture shows the explorer.

Tivoli, NY

Latitude: 42 Longitude: -73.8

Observed by: Megan
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