Date: 08/30/2019

Number: 3

Yesterday, I brought two caterpillars in the house that I had been watching since a monarch laid 3 eggs on a couple young milkweed plants that I put into 2 buckets next to my house. (I did this so the aphids and predators near the lawn did not attach the milkweed or the eggs. Outside,
3 caterpillars hatched and grew up. One big cat climbed out when I wasn't watching, escaped the container and hopefully found a bush to hang on and pupate.
That's when I decided to put the 2 remaining cats and one of the milkweed plants into an aquarium with a screen top. One caterpilller anxiously started to reach for the side of the tank and made himself a silky, sticky ladder above him before he took each step up the wall of the aquarium. He finally settled down in a corner half way up the side of the tank.The other cat kept eating milkweed.
This morning at 7am, that cat on the glass wall was hanging in the corner and the other was still eating milkweed.
After a few hours the one hanging in the corner started to grow fatter in the middle and another hour later, his skin split up his back which took about a minute as he pushed his skin to the top of him near the threads that were attaching him to the wall. As his new moist green body dripped a couple drops of liquid to the floor, he fattened up more and more. He began to quickly squirm around, moving left and right and wiggling around for a couple minutes, trying to get rid of the crumpled black skin with crinkled antennae. He finally broke it from the thread and flung it to the ground. He breathed a few more breaths and settled down as his new chrysalis body formed into shape and hardened up. It sparkled with gold dots along a row. Now we just have to wait til he emerges in a couple weeks.
Looking forward for number 2 caterpillar to make the metamorphosis. It is like magic. Hope they make it to Mexico and miss any hurricane weather.

Portsmouth, NH

Latitude: 43.1 Longitude: -70.8

Observed by: Denise
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