| You've heard the fable about the ugly duckling that turned into a swan? Well, that was nothing. Watching these creatures change from a speck of an egg into a catapiller, then to a chrysalis, and finally to a beautiful monarch butterfly can take your breath away. Best of all, it happened right in our kitchen! |
 A Monarch egg is smaller than a pinhead. Photographed on the underside of a milkweed leaf, at 200X magnification, the ridges and iridescent color are visible. |
 A day after hatching the caterpillar is less than 1 cm long. |
 After a few days , it has grown to 3 cm long. |
 Growing at an amazing rate, the caterpillar has reached its maximum size at about 6 cm, after a week of constant eating. |
 Its getting ready to form a chrysalis. The caterpillar spins a silk button and clamps on with its posterior end. |
 The following morning, the caterpillar splits it’s skin and wiggles into a chrysalis shape. The skin splits and falls off in about 15 seconds. The new chrysalis is a bright green color with an iridescent band. |
 After 10 to 14 days the chrysalis turns clear and the monarch’s coloration and folded wings can be seen through the shell. |
 The chrysalis splits at the bottom and the new butterfly craws out. Its abdomen is full of fluid that it pumps through its wings as they expand. Its wings are fully expanded in about 30 minutes. |
 With fully expanded wings, this 10 cm female needs time to finish reducing its abdomen and prepare for flight. |
 The newly hatched butterflies remain docile for several hours after hatching. |
 An example of a male. |
 The only ones that didn’t fly away. We released 21 from our indoor habitat and sent them on their way to Mexico. |
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