Monarch Eggs and Caterpillars

This morning, I found a creamy white colored monarch egg under one of the leaves of a small milkweed plant's leaf. Hearing of possible drenching rains in the forecast for later on, today, I headed over to the fields down our street on a mission to save other monarchs!!!

My youngest daughter came along to help gather up more. Pictured above are the 19 eggs we found in about an hour. We also found 15 very young caterpillars. At the beginning of the summer months, I used to check our milkweed garden two to three times a day for newly laid eggs. If I didn't get them first, the ants and spider mites often did!

These are first instar caterpillars. An instar is the period between molts. Caterpillars molt, or shed their skin, several times as they grow, just like a snake does.

These two larvae hatched a few days apart from each other. These two larvae are getting ready to shed their skin.

Smaller larvae are often found hidden among the newer, tightly packed leaves at the top of the milkweed.

This is how we've raised most species of butterflies for well over a decade with great success. (This method should not be used for swallowtails.) Eggs, as well as the first two instars of a caterpillar's life, need more humidity or they often quickly dry up and die. However third, fourth, and fifth instar larvae easily pick up diseases and die if kept in this much humidity.
--LKR