First monarch caterpillar emerges

Baby monarch butterfly update! Did you see my post about the monarch butterfly in our garden?  And my follow-up post about the eggs that she left on our milkweed?

We decided to raise some of them inside, which greatly increases their chance of surviving. We found 13 eggs, and carefully brought them inside on Thursday. By Saturday some of the eggs had lost their yellowish color, now appearing grayish-white with darker shading inside (the caterpillar's skin has formed and is showing through the egg, which is actually translucent). I posted two photos here, they're extreme closeups, remember that the egg is about the size of the head of a pin.

And voila! By Saturday evening the first tiny caterpillar ate its way out of its egg. The newly-hatched larva is a little more than a millimeter long, and has a gray-white body with a shiny black head.  You can see its egg to the right in the photographs. The tiny caterpillar is exploring and eating the milkweed.

I just checked, and more of the caterpillars are emerging, so hang on for more photos!  Click here to see my photos of the entire life cycle of the monarch butterfly, which I took in 2009, the last time we found eggs on the milkweed in our garden. 

  with great telephoto shots taken by photographer Doug Donaldson of the monarchs clustering on the eucalyptus trees. 

Click here to see all three of my monarch butterfly blog posts on my website.