Traveling Hearts Photography: Life Cycle of a Butterfly {Day 1}

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Life Cycle of a Butterfly {Day 1}

A few months ago in May, I had the privilege of watching five Monarch Caterpillars grow from small babies, form their crysalis, and emerge as butterflies. I was able to take photographs along the way, but not as many as I would like. When I found this Monarch Egg in my garden a few days ago (click here for a refresher), I thought it would be a great experience to be able to blog his/her life cycle.

Day 1(Approximately)

Monarch Butterfly Egg

ISO 640 ~ 60mm ~ f/5.0 ~ 1/200 sec

Day 4

Monarch Caterpillar Starting to Hatch

(You can see the Black of his/her head starting to push through the egg)

ISO 800 ~ 60mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/80 sec

When I saw that the Caterpillar was getting ready to hatch, I took the leaf off and brought it inside. I didn't want him/her being lunch for my newly acquired ladybugs. I just missed watching it hatch out completely, but shot this photo just after.

Monarch Caterpillar Just Hatched

ISO 100 ~ 60mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/125 sec

My Boys looking at the Itty Bitty Caterpillar

ISO 800 ~ 60mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/60 sec

When I say this Caterpillar is Itty Bitty, it is truly TINY!

Here's a comparison with a 1x1 regular sized lego

ISO 250 ~ 60mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/160 sec

After I got this little guy settled on the milkweed indoors, I looked outside to see if there were any more eggs. I was surprised to see two more newly, just hatched caterpillars, already munching away. I brought those two indoors as well.

We are now the proud parents of three Very Very Hungry Monarch Caterpillars. I hope you'll join us on our journey fostering these little guys through their life cycle.

One more thing... lets take a poll... out of the three caterpillars, how many girls and how many boys? Our last grouping of five Monarchs had four boys and one girl.

Capturing the Moment,

Corrie <3