robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Last week I found 6 (maybe 7) Monarch Caterpillars and then in 24 hours they all disappeared. I did not ransack the two plants they were on because I might cause more harm than good. 2 on one plant, 4 or 5 on another much larger plant - in one place I could not tell if I was seeing two sticking out of opposite sides of a bunch of leaves or two ends of one big one. Well the next day all were gone/hiding or something. The two days ago 4 on the larger plant re-appeared and then disappeared again. Yesterday while moving and working with all the potted plants I found the two on their plant, now twice the size they were the middle of last week. They were munching on the last sprig of leaves on a very tall stalk so I cut it off (plant needed trimming - aphids and fungus on stems) and balance it on the large plant (growing in ground) so the sprig of leaves was in the middle of a large clump of new leaves. By afternoon they had disappeared again, then this morning I found those two again, still no sign of the 4/5 already there but the plant has a lot of leaves down low and behind two large posts and my second birdbath. One demonstrated how to disappear while I sit and watched. Went to the underside of a large leaf and when its weight bent the leaf close to on underneath the cat latched onto the lower leaf and created sort of a den. If I hadn't watched it do it I would probably not have known it was there.
Anyway, here are the two:

this one crawled off the large leaf it was eating and proceeded to try and eat the stem

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about to move to the bottom of this leaf and grab on to the large half leaf to form a hiding spot

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rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Nice photos, Robert.
--Bob

Leicaflex Loc: Cymru

A good find.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thank you I will look again tomorrow but that large plant (growing out of a joint between the retaining wall and the concrete pool deck) seems to be a black hole for caterpillars. So far in the last year about 10 have vanished from it. I even started looking in the gaps in the retaining wall to see if spiders had gotten them and stashed them away for food/breeding.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

Nice shots, Robert. They are looking well fed and you will probably have fresh new butterflies before you know it!

Say Cheese Loc: Eastern PA

Around here the favorite food of butterfly caterpillars is the milkweed plant. Over the years the herbicides have eliminated most of them. There is a push to plant milkweed in areas that will be away from the herbicides. I have an area about 50' x 20' just for milkweed. Do you have milkweed in California?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Beautiful

Irvingite Charles Loc: Irving, Tx

Very nice

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks
I certainly hope so, already this spring I am seeing more butterflies than last year but not as many as 2016. Bees are back up also, but skippers are down - but then so are the flowers on my plants, maybe I need new plants, the ones in the yard are almost 3 years old now.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Milkweed and it's relatives are the only food (some rare exceptions) the Monarch caterpillars will/can eat. Other butterflies also eat it but will also eat other things the Monarchs can't eat.

California has 6 wide spread* native species of milkweed and I live in the zone of 5 of them. Plus the Tropical Milkweed/Bloodflower that has been introduced and spread all over to the point where it is now native for all practical purposes.
I have potted Tropical Milkweed** and Narrow Leaf. I also have seeds for 4 other species to put in over the next few weeks. Most will have to grow in pots because they spread by their root system and will take over the flower beds/yard.

I also have other flowering plants for the butterflies and Humming Birds.

*there are 9 other species that only grow in restricted areas due to climate & soil requirements such as desert or needing a particular mineral in large concentration.

**two different varieties because of the flower color - one of my biggest plants the flowers are all yellow with no red. One of the local nurseries sells both the regular and all yellow plants.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

thanks

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

thank you

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good Robert.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

thanks a lot