A little over a year ago, Christine suggested that for our second date, we go and tromp through a field near my work looking for monarch caterpillars that we could take home and grow into monarch butterflies. Needless to say, being the romantic I am, I was I completely smitten with this idea and with her. I still am. Being a city boy from the ‘burbs of Chicago, this was a new experience for me.
We didn’t find any caterpillars in the field (this did not affect me melting into her being and falling head over heels for her), but she did find 3 of them near a garage sale she was at the next week. They all spun chrysalises, one died, and 2 hatched out, much to my and my kids’ delight. What an electric experience for us.
Monarch caterpillars eat and live on milkweed plants. I have a bunch of milkweed plants in my backyard, so I figured finding caterpillars this year would be a cinch. My neighbor came by a few weeks ago and offered to clear out a few weeds along the fence between us, and it turns out he pulled most of my milkweed. So I did not end up with any monarch caterpillars in my backyard, but Christine being the super-nature-wonderkind that she is, found a single monarch caterpillar on some weedy vines growing in my front yard a few weeks ago. We brought it in and put it in a jar with some milkweed leaves (I did still have a few small plants in my tomato beds). It spun itself into a chrysalis in a day or two. We’ve been keeping our eye on it every day and this morning the chrysalis was completely transparent (except for the amazing gold beads on it). So I put my camera on time-lapse when I went to work and caught it coming out on video. It runs at 15x normal speed (it shot one photo every second and runs at 15fps). I think it’s pretty cool and want to just watch it come out in person next year. What a gorgeous animal. Chris and I came here over lunch and released it into my backyard on some mums. Thank you Christine for introducing me to this beautiful and awe-inspiring process. I can’t wait to do it again next year.
