It wasn’t more than a few weeks back that our neighbor, Sue, showed us some tiny black eggs that Monarch butterflies had laid on the underside of some milkweeds that we intentionally let grow near the pool on our street. The nearby milkweed leaves had been nibbled on by the butterflies. The weeds are their primary food source.
She took the eggs home on the leaf that she found them on and she put it in a clear plastic tube that was maybe a foot in diameter and 16 inches tall. The eggs turned into caterpillars and the caterpillars created a jewel-like pod, a chrysalis. Over time the green chrysalis with the tiny gold necklass turns clear a folded-up butterfly becomes visible, one with the same colors as the caterpillar. It shakes off it shell, unfolds its wings, dries them for a few hours and is ready to hit the skies for Mexico. Every stage happens before your eyes and it’s all quite remarkable.
Margaret Explosion comes out of its summer cocoon tonight with a late summer appearance at the Little Theater Café.
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