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Newly hatched Monarch Butterfly

Started by Cypressstump, June 19, 2012, 12:17:00 PM

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Cypressstump

This past Sunday, while at the camp working on feeding the mill some pine, I came out of the camp and noticed something on the porch craweling around. Almost squashed it with my boot, as I could not tell what kind of varmit it was at first, and as it was underfoot, it surprised me.
I found the thing was a newly hatched Monarch Butterfly, big black and yellow one that had  wings still moist and soft from emerging. I picked it up and put it on a handrail. I had never seen a butterfly with wings that were almost liquid in form. It craweled around and found a vertical position it liked and stayed put for a bit.

I went off to cut some pine, a few hours later I walked back to the porch to retrieve a ice cold gatoraid from the cooler. I had forgotten about ol' soft wings. As I went up to the porch, the butterfly flew off the rail directly towards my face, fluttered around in front of me for a second or two before taking flight to where ever butterflys go. For a second I felt like a surrogate parent, proud to have helped it on its way. I guess its wings had harden enough to let it fly.
Pretty cool to witness that.
Stump

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Jeff

Its cool when you get to witness something like that.  :)
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sawguy21

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Mooseherder

We had a couple of them in the chrysalis stage a few years ago.
Unfortunately they didn't make it.



 



 

Den Socling

We always avoid cutting Milkweeds. Monarchs love them. When our kids were younger, we put a Monarch caterpillar in a large jar with Milkweed leaves. Leaves were added as the caterpillar ate them. It took very little time for the caterpillar to pupate and we could watch the butterfly being formed. Then a perfect butterfly was in the jar. We took him outside and left him to continue his journey. 

Norm

We have quite a bit of milkweed on our place too and leave plenty for the monarch butterflies to feed on. One fall several years ago we had a hard maple tree that had the lower branches covered in them. This lasted for a few days and was very cool to see.

clww

I've never seen one at that stage of just emerging from its cocoon. I have noticed many more butterflies this year, though, it seems.
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Cypressstump

Quote from: clww on June 20, 2012, 03:00:31 PM
I've never seen one at that stage of just emerging from its cocoon. I have noticed many more butterflies this year, though, it seems.

Yep, Up until I encountered that one, I had not seen that before either. It's one of natures wonders we tend to take for granted in one aspect, you always see them fluttering around, and then our thoughts tends to drift elsewhere's..... ;)
Stump

Timberking 1220 25hp w/extensions -hard mounted
Case 586E 6k forklift
2001 F350 4X4,Arctic Cat 500 4 wheeler wagon hauler
Makita 6401 34",4800 Echo 20"er, and a professional 18" Poulan PRO , gotta be a 'pro' cuz it says so rite there on tha' saw..

Magicman

Our DIL always has several chrysalis in an aquarium and she "hatches" dozens each year.  You really have to be there at the right time to witness the event.
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SwampDonkey

Never seen one just emerge either. Pretty cool as everyone has said. I had a silkworm cocoon I brought in and jarred, but it later died in the cocoon I guess. The tail stopped wiggling when I tested it the other day. I think it had been in the red oak and got detached by the wind this spring.

Haven't seen a monarch here for a long time. One year, about 20 years ago I had the worms and the moths around on my carrots in the garden. The worms are just as colorful as the butterfly and have them "horns". I never noticed them eating any of the tops they was just there. We don't have milkweed locally because the ground here doesn't stay wet in the growing season. South of here the land has heavy clay in places and lots of milkweed in old fields that were once pastured. More common across the river.
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metalspinner

At a cub scout camp out last year, a sister found a butterfly emerging from it's chrysalis.  Talk about messing up the camp schedule! :D  This one was a black swallowtail.  They like to feed on dill weed. The hardest thing to do in this world is to try and keep 40 little kids from touching a hatching butterfly :D :D
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Den Socling

There's a local attraction called Clyde Peeling's Reptileland. They have a butterfly house there. Naturally, there is no touching. Pretty hard to get the kids to follow the rules when the critters are landing on them.

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