Monarch Butterfly and Caterpillar
Monarch News for Citizen Scientists: Check out the “App for Monarchs” (Monarch Model Validation Project) that UMaine is involved with. It’s an application available for Apple or Android smartphones, as well as any device running Windows 10.
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- Egg stage of a Monarch (on host plant, milkweed) (eggs hatch after roughly four days)
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- Monarch caterpillar (1st-instar stage) (on host plant, milkweed) (August 9th, 2019; central Maine)
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- Monarch caterpillar (2nd-instar stage) (on host plant, milkweed) (August 9th, 2019; central Maine)
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- Monarch caterpillar (4th-instar stage) (on host plant, milkweed) (August 9th, 2019; Warren, Maine)
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- Monarch caterpillars (5th and final instar stage) (on host plant, milkweed)
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- A mature Monarch caterpillar (5th instar) – Warren, ME (8/9/2019) (on host plant, milkweed)
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- A Monarch chrysalis (early stage)
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- A Monarch chrysalis a few days away from butterfly emergence (8/29/2006)
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- A Monarch chrysalis in an advanced stage (final minutes before adult emergence)
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- A Monarch butterfly newly-emerged (Their wings are small at first but within a matter of minutes they slowly expand to full size as fluid from the body is pumped into the wings)
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- A young Monarch butterfly resting on a rose (central Maine)
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- A male Monarch butterfly (males have a prominent dark spot on each hind wing; the spot is lacking on the female butterflies)
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- Monarch Butterfly feeding on a red clover blossom; 8/20/2018. Turner, Maine.
Additional Information:
- UMaine News (October 25, 2022): Wesley Hutchins: Studying and advocating for migrating monarchs
- Monarch (The Butterflies and Moths of North America Project)
- Monarch Butterfly (National Geographic)
- Monarch Butterfly Facts (part of Washington State’s NatureMapping Program)
- Genus of Tachinid flies known to parasitize monarch caterpillars: Lespesia (BugGuide.net) [Example: Lespesia archippivora]