By the time I woke up today, this had happened:
And the fourth had also decided it was time to find a spot.
Junior is now 3rd instar. The one of the latest crop, I spotted quickly when I glanced at the incubator and realized it was time for another pair of leaves are just about reaching 2nd instar.
When I clean the incubator and add new leaves, I’ll do a last check for any eggs or recently hatched beyond the four I counted. I may find some new eggs to bring in as well. I’m hoping my egg count on the seed pods was off, because they take up a lot of room in the incubator, so if I need to bring anymore seedpods in, hopefully I won’t find any eggs left on the three currently in there.
I think I will wait to clean out the keeper until the fourth has formed their chrysalis. Junior could get moved over, but unless I find more seedpod eggs, I want to keep them with the youngers until Junior reaches 4th instar. Timing wise, this will work out well because the fourth in the keeper will be in chrysalis by then, so I won’t worry quite as much about disturbing it as I would if it was still in J.
My partner, by the way, named Junior. It’s been easy to keep track of Junior because it has been in between the others in size. I’m debating using a china marker on the tank to mark Junior’s chrysalis location when the time comes. My partner is also being a bit five years old lately with the monarchs, and I think he would appreciate releasing Junior himself if possible.
