After naming, tagging, and releasing 13 newborn Monarch butterflies on Friday, we had more insect fun on Saturday. Two females, Lola (above) and Flyer (below), were netted, tagged, and released.
We watch, we wait, and eventually catch the butterflies with nets — swooping down when they’re feeding from one of the white butterfly bushes in the play area.
We capture caterpillars that we spot on milkweed plants. This is the only plant that hosts them, the only place a female will lay eggs, so when we see a caterpillar on milkweed, we know it’s a Monarch.
Marley, shown above, was discovered, named, and placed inside a habitat. She’ll eat milkweed leaves for the next week, until she’s big enough to go into a chrysalis in which she’ll transform into a butterfly over 7-10 days. You can see the lifecycle here:
We found and housed 4-5 swallowtail caterpillars in a habitat, but we don’t study or tag these, typically. We’re working with Monarchs as part of a citizen science project from MonarchWatch, a group that helps conserve the important pollinators. Learn more here.
The Monarch Migration is forecast to continue to move through Brooklyn until about Sept 26th — we’re smack in the middle peak season! Stay tuned for more local reports. –Denise
Read posts from previous migrations:
Monarch Butterfly was Tagged, Released Today (2019; CV Has Monarch Caterpillars (2019;
Concord Village EarthLab 