Well, my little flowerbed has turned into a flower gardeners nightmare and a butterfly gardeners dee-light. A few weeks ago we got to watch the monarchs lay eggs. Now they have hatched and gorged themselves on annual butterfly weed. Not all are a success story. This unlucky dude is being eaten by a spider. I found this beautiful chrysalis this morning attached to the old dog pen. Went on and found 11 more. I had some aphids on the plant but they have disappeared along with every leaf and even the seed pods!
Verocious little devils caterpillars aren't they? It always amazes me how something that small can eat sooo much in such a short space of time. Your photographs are great though Beth especially the chrysalis. :-D I have a friend who is a photographer and he takes the stalks the chrysalis's are on and suspends them over a small tank with a ventilated (removable) roof. As soon as he sees movement he's there with his camera ready and waiting for the butterfly to emerge.
Look at all those chomp-marks in your plants - I can see what you mean. How lovely they will be, though. The preschool here orders some monarch chrysalis every year for the little ones to watch the butterflies emerge as they learn about them and dress up with little monarch colored hats.
