Two firsts today: I happened to catch a J transforming into chrysalis. If I had strolled by sooner, I might not have realized it was that far along if not for the visually striking difference between larvae skin and sudden bulge of light green. Also, this happened…
We had a fake out. One of the 5th instar was on the screen lid on the side where all the chrysalises are. Later, I thought it fell, but it was happily munching on a leaf. I don’t know how folks keep track of greater numbers.
The temperature took a nosedive today, and it’s cool enough that I’m in jeans and a sweatshirt quite comfortably (My low blood pressure is helping that). The cool damp in the air instead of the humidly stifling feeling is quite a change! I’m wondering how much difference this will make for the larvae growth rate, as the forecast is predicting this will be the norm for a few more days until the temps start to hit low 80s F again. Continue reading “Guardianship update: 12th August 2018”
Yesterday was busy, so I didn’t get a chance to post news. When I cleaned out the incubator yesterday, I found a single newly born. I think one bit I thought was an egg was really just a tiny milkweed sap bubble. I checked over the seed pods with a magnifying glass several times to be sure there were no remaining eggs before I put them back outside–they take up a lot of room in the incubator, and I wanted to bring in a stem with more leaves as all the larvae were getting bigger. Continue reading “Guardianship update: 8th August 2018”
Well, the joke’s on me. The biggest of the four in the keeper is the only one that isn’t currently hanging in their J in this really bad picture below. It’s still munching away on a leaf. Continue reading “Guardianship update: 5th August 2018”
The four later instar in the keeper are eating like crazy. Four more eggs hatched since yesterday that I can find the larvae for, but there is at least one other egg “missing”, and I just might have missed finding the larva. Continue reading “Guardianship update: 4th August 2018”
Welcome back to today’s installment of how I’m making my monarch keeper. Here’s all the bits I didn’t write up yesterday, along with info and images about materials and the process. Continue reading “Cleaning out/Setting up the monarch keeper, Part 2”
I had started setting up the tank on Sunday, but quickly realized when I found the old crickets inside that it was in fact used as a reptile tank at one point. That changed my plan of action slightly, as it still had some sand in the base and now the cleaning would need to be more thorough just in case anything lingered from the former residents. Then my cat got sick, and suffice it to say I forgot about the cleaning though I still kept an eye on the monarchs. Continue reading “Cleaning out the monarch keeper”
At first, I thought the newest egg dried out or I had squished it in transfer because I couldn’t find the baby larva nearby today when I check on the monarchs and the egg looked deflated. I felt awful. Continue reading “Guardianship update: 29th July 2018”
