The current Mrs. Blythe bought one of those milkweed plants and we've become quite the place for whatever the heck is the life cycle of the caterpillar/butterfly. It is a transformation that we have witnessed and are still. As I write this on the same plant above there are no fewer than 7 more caterpillars getting hooked onto a portion of the plant.
Once attached they coat themselves with a kind of pod.
Here are two fellas preparing for transformation.
Once they have spread whatever it is over themselves they begin the transformation into butterflies. In fact, on this one who attached itself to our Adirondack chair out front, you can actually see the faintest orange of a wing. Soon it will break out of the pod and become a beautiful Monarch.
This guy made it, but another who hatched soon after did not. In fact the fellow in the above picture which is in the stage of enveloping itself in its pod did not make it either. It must have run out of goop, because he died halfway through. Nature is tough but with the seven we have in process I'm sure we will be the proud parents of some young Monarchs in the next few days.
The pod stage is called a chrysalis and isn't that part of the plot detail of Silence of the Lambs? Creepy movie and damn it, this is kind of a natural creepiness, too isn't it? I don't know of any other living thing that turns into an entirely different creature (insert obvious and gratuitous spouse joke). Nature, what a sombitch that is, huh?
I'll keep an eye out on my babies out front and if I see something exciting I'll let you in on it.
When Steve was 4 or 5 he found a monarch butterfly and was going to pick it up but I told him if he left it alone it would stay around him and be hid friend. Fast forward 3 or 4 months and would you believe that butterfly followed him all the way to Denver! He was a believer after that.
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