Life Cycle of Monarch Butterfly

I planted a milkweed in the garden, because I heard it attracts Monarch butterflies. And indeed it does. Apparently the Milkweed is the only thing the monarch caterpillar eats. The plant is slightly toxic and makes the caterpillar toxic to predators. The butterfly is also toxic to predators. Interestingly, the Viceroy butterfly looks very much like the Monarch butterfly, but is not toxic. But the birds mistake them for the poisonous Monarch, and avoid eating them.

When I took the picture, I hadn't noticed the caterpillar under the leaf on the right. Apparently the butterflies had already been laying eggs on the milkweed for some time.	This is a picture of the butterfly actually laying eggs.	Within a couple of days the milkweed plant was covered with monarch caterpillars, and they had eaten every leaf on the plant.	Close-up of caterpillar. By the next day, they had not only eaten all the leaves, but a goodly portion of the stems. When there was nothing left to eat, they disappeard.
I discovered one of the caterpillars hanging upside down under my squirrel feeder, preparing to make a chrysalis.	The next morning, the caterpillar had formed the chrysalis. It is about 1-1/4" long.	After about 9 days the chrysalis turned transparent, so I knew the butterfly would be emerging soon.	I went inside and had a cup of coffee, and when I came back out, the butterfly had already emerged, and was hanging onto the now empty chrysallis.
It would try to spread it's wings out a little, and then rest.	After an hour or so, the butterfly flew away, leaving the empty chrysalis behind.	By the way, the milkweed made a complete recovery, and is getting ready to make new blooms for the next generation of monarch butterflies.

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