Rare Find at the H. Olive Day Butterfly Garden
It is not often that you find a Monarch chrysalis in the wild, but that is exactly what Stephanie Markham spotted while gardening at our ACE butterfly garden. Butterflies have four stages of life: egg, larva (the caterpillar stage), pupa (the chrysalis phase in a butterfly’s development), and adult. According to Madeline Champagne, past president of the Mass. Butterfly Club, a female Monarch laid her egg on a milkweed leaf probably in late May at the H. Olive Day Butterfly Garden. The egg hatched into baby caterpillars, called the larvae, and they fed on our common milkweed leaves in order to grow. After about two weeks, a fully-grown caterpillar found a place on our honeysuckle vine to attach itself. It then started the process of metamorphosis and transformed itself into a chrysalis. Madeline told us it is not a common occurrence to find a chrysalis in the wild. She has only found two in the past 25+ years, one at Stony Brook and one at Mass Audubon’s Allen’s Pond in Westport.
The chrysalis phase lasts about ten days. Within the chrysalis the old body parts of the caterpillar undergo a transformation to become an adult butterfly. We did not see it emerge, but found the empty chrysalis (shown above). The adult Monarch flew away and will feed on flowers for about two to six weeks. The female will then die after laying eggs for next generation. We hope she will return to our butterfly garden. We have plenty of milkweed ready for her to laid her eggs on.
Must Read Articles
Monarch Butterfly Genes Reveal Key to Long-Distance Flying
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141001-monarch-migration-genome-science/
How to Help Monarch butterflies
Useful Websites
Monarch Butterfly, Journey North
This website is packed with information and resources about the Monarch Butterfly including Monarch sightings so far this year. Also contains great Resources for Kids and Teachers and Resources by Season.
the Butterflies of Massachusetts
Mass Audubon Butterfly Species Atlas Accounts
Monarch Wayside Station Program
Creating a Monarch Wayside Station
North American Butterfly Association
We would encourage people to enter their butterfly sightings on this website. The sightings you enter will help provide the North American Butterfly Association with valuable information on butterfly distribution, abundance and conservation. This website also provides a location where you can keep track of all your butterfly sightings and retrieve them at any time.
The Garden Club of Norfolk, Inc. 