I’m always on the lookout for butterflies and recently spied a couple of Queen Butterflies mating. With milkweed being the host plant on which the female Queen deposits her eggs, I began to closely watch my milkweed plants. Happily I found several eggs which then hatched a couple of days later. Knowing that the eggs and caterpillars are predation for wasps, I removed the caterpillars and placed them on milkweed in a pot which I protected in the house. As in the children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the tiny caterpillars ate and ate the milkweed leaves and quickly became full grown. After about a week the caterpillars pupated, and I now have about 15 beautiful green jewels (chrysalis of the Queen--see above) in which the metamorphosis is happening. I expect a flutter of new Queen butterflies soon.
