When I found three more eggs today, I realized I’m already near to my entire season’s count last year. I’m still unsure on whether some of the seed pod eggs were actually eggs or milkweed sap bubbles, so I’m a bit iffy on my real total of eggs last year. Looking at my posts from last year, by July 21st, I had a grand total of two eggs.
The final count of adults released last year was 11, 6 females and 5 males. So just with eggs alone so far, if they all hatch and make it to butterfly I’ll be equal to last year. This doesn’t include the 5th instar I found.
Of the four cats, I’m fairly certain they will be third instar with a day or so. All four had moved to the same leaf last night, so I put a fresh one in for them today, but they’ve yet to move to it–perhaps tonight. It’s also possible that they are getting ready for the transition to third instar.
Current Count:
- 1 chrysalis
- 4 second instar
- 7 eggs
