Maine Audubon regularly features posts by guest writers, including graudates of the Maine Master Naturalist Program — in our Maine’s Naturalist series. If you’d like to explore contributing a post, send an email to outreach@maineaudubon.org. Today’s blog post is by Maine Master Naturalist Karen Lessard Bruder.
They’re back! The recolonization of Maine has begun. Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are being sighted along the coast from Kennebunk to Blue Hill and as far inland as Hartland and Strong.
I have eagerly awaited this annual migration since my childhood. I vividly remember receiving the August 1976 edition of National Geographic, cover adorned with butterflies detailing the discovery of the overwintering forests in the Mountains of Mexico. This was the first year I reared my own from caterpillar to adult.
While the Monarch butterflies being seen now will only live from 2 to six weeks, their offspring, like those of this mating pair spotted in Freeport on June 19, will likely be the generation that will migrate thousands of miles south back to Mexico and live for 6 to 9 months. They are the ones who will start this cycle over again in March of next year. After mating, the female locates a suitable host plant; one in the Asclepias family, also known as “milkweed.”
She will lay 300-500 eggs in her lifetime; each one, a yellowish-white, football-shaped egg carefully glued most commonly on the underside of young, tender leaves. However when you can’t see your ovipositor at the end of your abdomen, placement can go awry. I have found eggs on these Asclepias tuberosa buds, on milkweed stems as well as on milkweed flowers.
3-5 days later a tiny, very hungry caterpillar emerges. Its first meal; its eggshell. Throughout its life, the caterpillar will grow rapidly and molt several times. After the first molt, it begins to get its stripes and its antennae can begin to be seen giving it a more typical monarch caterpillar look.
Under normal summer conditions, it takes from 9 to 14 days to complete the larval stage of development. The caterpillars only job during this time is to eat and avoid predators. If all works out in the caterpillar’s favor, (less than 10% will reach maturity) it will have increased in mass by 2,000 times its original size by the time it becomes a pupa. Over the next 10-14 days the Monarch continues to develop inside the pupa. Right from the start of this stage, it has a plan. Each body part is already defined, awaiting the perfect time eclose (butterfly terminology for “emerge”) and reveal itself as an adult butterfly.
I hope you will find time this summer to observe this process and enjoy this annual reminder of just how amazing the natural world is. Take a walk in the milkweed before summer’s end see the mystery of the Monarch reveal itself to you. Like me, you just might find yourself ‘catching the bug’ and becoming passionate about saving this one.
Beautiful pictures and beautifully written! No matter how old you are, one can always enjoy this magical transformation.
I saw my first Monarch on my Coneflowers in my butterfly garden on July 30. What joy!!!
Most of the milkweed I planted this spring have caterpillars of all sizes on them, even though most of the plants are small. I thought the plants needed to be full grown to host caterpillars. I love watching them!
Wonderful pictures and easy description of the life cycle of the monarch.
Exciting to have so many this year.
We summer on Kennebec Point in Georgetown and have a fairly new( 2 years) hillside garden with plantings to attract butterflies. We have had monarchs for at least the last three weeks or so and MANY caterpillars. No chrysalis yet. We have had as many as 4 or 5 monarchs around the flowers at one time.
They are attracted to the flowers on the red swamp milkweed. However 2 are on the thin whorled milkweed.
I would like to send you a picture. I do not do Facebook, etc.
I am on Deer Isle and have limited milkweed in my garden. Despite this I have many monarch caterpillars! I have been gathering milkweed clippings to support them and some are already heading off to form their chrysalis. 2 are hanging from the garage and one is starting on a spirea plant.
Western Maine Brownfield area. We have had hundreds of monarch caterpillars the past few weeks on milkweed that grew wild in my garden. We are now sighting cacoon all over in our plants. Counted about 20 last night and four already hatched. Sure there are many more we have not seen. So exciting to watch the process.
There is a good amount of milkweed in my yard in Standish Maine. There are numerous caterpillars and I have observed the development of chrysalis and appearance of the monarch. It’s fascinating to watch!
I’m in Wayne and just saw at least a hundred monarchs in my back field, which is full of milkweed plants…what a beautiful sight.
A butterfly has emerged today, Oct. 11, in Wells, ME.
I had over 30 chrysalises hanging from my eaves, shutters and light fixtures on my house. Currently there are still 2 unhatched.
There were approx. 10 butterflies with problem wings.
We were hiking Gulf Hagas yesterday and we saw dozens of butterflies that may have been monarchs but we were not sure. Many were clustered on the ground around a moist puddle
near the river. Literally dozens in a tight cluster. Any thoughts?
We always go out and “save” the caterpillars. We watch them hatch, eat a ton and turn into beautiful butterflies. Then we let them go to start the process again. I’ve heard it’s important to let them go quickly after they hatch because that’s when they typically mate? Is that true? We hope we are helping these beautiful creatures and have wanted to start a butterfly garden someday soon!