Male Monarch on Aster
instar, we switched from milkweed leaves to whole plant cuttings in a larger enclosure. As the progress through their five instars, monarchs grow from approximately, 2-6mm all the way up to 25-45mm. By the time it reaches the fifth instar, the caterpillar is nice and plump with beautiful velvety-looking black, yellow and white striping. It is estimated that a single monarch caterpillar needs around 20 entire leaves to grow large enough to successfully pupate, according to Cornell YardMap (content.yardmap.org). Pupation Larvae are ready to pupate at the fifth instar. They crawl to the top of their container and attach themselves to it with silken thread, and then hang there in a “J” shape for awhile. You can tell they are getting ready to shed their
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~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com
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