12 ACRES IN OHIO

By Gena Husman/Robin Arnold

Treasures in the Weeds

You might want to think twice before you pull up that bouquet of milkweed on the edge of your lawn—it’s the food plant for the caterpillar of one of the most familiar butterflies in our area: the Monarch butterfly.

All butterflies and moths go through complete metamorphosis with 4 distinct life forms: egg, caterpillar (larva), pupae or chrysalis, and adult. The Monarch butterfly, which most of us are familiar with, cycles through an entire generation—from egg to adult butterfly in 4 to 5 weeks. Others may take longer—the Arctic Woolly-bear takes about 14 years; the rest fall somewhere in between.  

The female Monarch lays her eggs on a milkweed plant since this is the food plant for the Monarch caterpillar. The eggs hatch within 4-6 days and a tiny caterpillar emerges. Over the next 2 weeks the caterpillar grows, passing through about 5 stages or “instars”, shedding its skin as it gets larger. The last or “ultimate” instar reveals not a larger caterpillar, but the next stage of its life, the pupa, or chrysalis. As the caterpillar approaches the chrysalis stage, it begins to lose its patterning and some of its length, and may appear to be dying. The chrysalis stage in its life cycle is a time of transformation—nearly all of the larval tissues and organs are digested and reorganized into the adult butterfly. The Monarch passes about 8-15 days in the chrysalis stage.

The Monarch chrysalis itself is a work of art—it resembles a sea-green pouch with fine black lines and glimmering spots of gold, and may be found suspended from a twig or stem in fields, marshes, meadows, and along roads. If you are lucky enough to find a chrysalis nearby, or are able to move one inside without disturbing it, you can actually watch the transformation as it nears completion, since the wall of the chrysalis becomes transparent a few days before the chrysalis splits and the adult butterfly emerges.