Goodbye #2 and #3

I don't know why we even HAVE science in elementary grades, because apparently I learned very little back then from the many nature videos we watched.

So, a few things I learned about Monarch butterflies this month.

First, the caterpillars ONLY eat milkweed, but we have a non-traditional milkweed plant that looks a lot like morning glory growing all over our yard. Hence, the caterpillars. It's called "Blue Vine Milkweed", and apparently it's a good substitute for the eggs when the tall kind isn't available. It took me a while to figure out why I was finding caterpillars where I did, but I'm glad I did because our neighbor's milkweed plant was already supporting its own litter.

Second, we had a brother and sister butterfly here. The male has the pair of black dots on his lower wings. The female's black veins are more pronounced. Aren't we lucky to be able to see the differences side by side?

Third, did you know most monarchs live only 4-6 weeks? There are typically 4 hatchings in a year. This batch will be the exception to that rule - for some reason the last batch born in the year lives over six months - long enough to make the journey to Mexico, live it up for the winter, and then return to lay the first batch of eggs in the southern United States. The subsequent hatchings make their way further north until the last ones hatch again and it begins over.

These last two were trickier than the first because they emerged in the middle of the wettest and coldest few days we've had so far this year. They can't fly in the rain, so we built them a little habitat in our handy sterilite bucket and were able to watch them for a while. Today finally warmed up a little and as soon as we took them out into the sun their wings opened up like little solar panels. About fifteen minutes later the male took off, landing briefly on my head, on Matt's hand and then back on the trampoline before he headed south. The female took a little longer, taking off and making short flights around the lawn before she finally began her journey.

Thanks to our neighbor Sally for showing us what milkweed looks like and for allowing us to pluck leaves from her plant for the caterpillars. This was a lot of fun!