Date: 10/29/2023

Number: 3

I did not expect to find monarch caterpillars, but there they were! I had followed a flying monarch butterfly down into the pasture and then went looking at the milkweed. I first found one 5th instar on a milkweed plant, then found these two caterpillars together on another milkweed (1 5th instar, 1 4th instar). I also found a monarch egg on another milkweed.

The milkweed (Asclepias viridis) is much healthier now because of the October rains. Some are newly emerged fresh plants, some flowering, some with green seedpods, and a few with seedpods opening and spreading their seeds.

(As of 10/31/2023 these two caterpillars are still on their milkweed doing fine. The other 5th instar I brought inside and is about to form a chrysalis.)

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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