Date: 08/24/2021

Number: 6

Today, the last of my monarch cats eclosed. I was fortunate enough to witness the entire process.

I brought 2 cats inside from my orange milkweed plant weeks ago and then discovered 4 more that were even larger than the ones I already had! I don’t know how I missed them the first time. The thing that surprised me was how much 2 of the cats loved to eat the seed pods instead of the leaves of the plant.....

The 4 newbies formed chrysalides first and the 2 oldies were last.

The newbies began eclosing first and the oldies slowly followed. Two butterflies fell to the bottom of the cage as soon as they emerged and I wasn't home to help get them up.

I picked each one up as soon as I got home but both had badly deformed wings. One was in bad shape and I felt I had to do the humane thing and euthanize it. It was so sad....
The other will stay in the cage inside since it cannot fly. It's been drinking nectar from the peach pieces I put on a dish on the bottom of the cage.

The last boy sadly couldn't zip its proboscis pieces together into one and cannot survive in the wild as such. It can live inside where it can wick up the peach nectar and other nectar I make. I'm happy about that but sad that he is perfect in every other way and already wants to fly.....

It's really a bummer that half of my cats ended up having issues. I've never gone through this many heartbreaking times with one batch of babies before. But..... I released one female beauty today and 2 yesterday!!!! That makes me smile.

Belle Haven, VA

Latitude: 37.6 Longitude: -75.8

Observed by: Sherry
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