Caterpillar Update - Day 9

Our caterpillar buddy is now at approximately 26mm.  It has grown over 1 inch since it hatched 9 days ago.  This week I have released 4 adults (3 F, 1 M) and collected 3 caterpillars.  Today I added another 4 eggs to the nursery.  It looks like the female Monarchs are now selecting the very youngest milkweed leaves on which to lay their eggs and 2 of the eggs I found today were deposited on the top of the leaves. In our same butterfly garden today I saw what appeared to be a Spicebush Swallowtail laying eggs on Sassafrass leaves.  Unfortunately, today I also lost a chrysalis to Tachinid Fly larvae infestation.

Monarch Butterfly Emerging from Chrysalis

This sequence took 13 minutes from beginning to end.  10 minutes later another adult emerged and I got another sequence of photos. Notice the size of the abdomen. It is full of the liquid that is pumped into the wings to expand them and the abdomen is flexed to pump the liquid until the wings are at flight capability. The butterfly will be ready for flight after about 5 hours. The butterfly will flex it's proboscis (tongue) and expel the excess fluid from it's abdomen prior to flight.  This Monarch will be tagged and released Wednesday morning at Fox Island County Park.
Photos: J. Ormiston

Caterpillar Update - Day 7

7 days ago this Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar hatched and began it's journey to adulthood.  The caterpillar is barely 4mm long and all but invisible to the naked eye.

Today the same caterpillar is 14mm and growing. The scale in both pictures is the same. In about 7 more days the caterpillar will be 50mm long and nearing the chrysalis stage. At this stage a caterpillar will eat nearly one entire 3" milkweed leaf in 24 hours.
Photos: J. Ormiston

Elegant(?) Stinkhorn Fungi

If you've looked out the windows of the former Bird Observation Building at Fox Island Park in the last couple of weeks you have probably noticed that the mulch under the bird feeders has several red spikes rising out of it that are about 6" to 8" tall. These spikes are actually a fungi known as Elegant Stinkhorn (Mutinus elegans). While this fungi is a colorful contrast to the brown mulch the smell given off by these slimy spikes reminds one of rotting meat.

Like the plant Skunk Cabbage the smell given off by this fungi serves to attract flies that land on the smelly slime covering and eat some of this smelly ooze and thus carry off many spores on their feet and intestinal tract that will begin the next generation of the stinkhorn. The stinkhorn fungi are typically found in (you guessed it) wood mulch.
Photos: J. Ormiston

Caterpillar Update Day 5

At day 5 the caterpillar has doubled it's length and the tentacles have grown.  The colors are more pronounced and the head is larger and has developed stripes.

Cabbage White Butterflies

Probably the most visible butterfly in the Fox Island Butterfly Garden right now is  the Cabbage White (Pieris rapae rapae).  Familiar as a "Cabbage Butterfly" to anyone who has ever worked a garden in Indiana the host plants of the Cabbage White are the cabbage plant and members of the mustard family including Garlic Mustard.

The Cabbage White is native to the Old World first introduced to North America via Canada in 1860 and moving to the East Coast of the United States by the 1870's.  By 1892 it was common throughout Indiana.

Mating pair of Cabbage Whites

Male Cabbage Whites can be distinguished by a single black spot on their fore-wing, females by two black spots on their forewings.  Both have a pale yellow hind-wing and black tips on the fore-wing.
Photos by J. Ormiston 8-22-14.

Caterpillar Update - Day 2

The caterpillar has grown about 1 mm in length and has also increased in diameter.

The caterpillar's head is now smaller in diameter than it's body. The tentacles still have not formed.

This caterpillar is about 7 days older than the caterpillar that hatched Tuesday.

The football shaped openings on the side of each body segment are called "Spiracles" and are the openings to the respiratory system of the caterpillar. There is a spiracle opening on each side of the body segments of the thorax and abdomen and connect to a web of tracheae that supplies oxygen to the body.

Photos by J. Ormiston