Newborn Monarch Under Microscope

Found this little guy on our milkweed this morning. I watched it for a while and he was so afraid to leave the safety of the rib of the leaf where he clung... or so it seemed to me :)

Here are some images of an unhatched egg from the same plant under the microscope. I had to see if it really looked like the corn cob image in the children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar - it does!

Both larva and egg are back in the garden on the milkweed now to "...spin and die, to live again a butterfly."

Here is a video of a monarch larva cocooning. It's from an earlier set of monarchs from a few weeks ago. Interestingly, there were three of them - two under our kitchen window and one on this loose window we had leaning against the wall in the garden - and they all cocooned on the same day and emerged from their cocoons on the same day.

They cocooned March 16, 2015. And then emerged April 2, 2015. Exactly 17 days. Here is the butterfly getting ready to emerge - the cocoon becomes translucent and the creature to emerge is clearly visible. 

In case all of this makes you want to sing for joy, you can!

Here's a link to another post with more pictures of the Monarch under the microscope: http://thechangingyearoc.blogspot.com/2014/07/monarch.html

Monarchs in our April garden

Two of our milkweed plants from last year survived in pots and today a Monarch laid eggs on the undersides of the flower bud clusters and leaves. 

Here's a picture of a newborn, fresh from its egg, ten days later. 

We bought two kinds of milkweed last year to try and provide enough food for the ravenous caterpillars, but $60 of milkweed later, it still wasn't enough. We do enjoy our visits to Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano though, they have an amazing collection of plants, a pond with fish and turtles, and cat that roams about.   

 Here are some other pictures from our (potted patio) garden:

Morning glory. Glorious indeed.

A sunflower blooming from the bottom up

A succulent, I'm not sure what it's called, but it grows amazingly well here and keeps duplicating itself.

These are called hotlips and the kids love the nectar just as much as the hummingbirds it attracts. They do well in full hot sun.

One of my favorite parts of the day is my morning coffee and watering the garden to see how my friends are doing and who is visiting them :)