Mike Powell

I love examining milkweed plants, because I always find interesting insects there to photograph. Yesterday I spotted a tiny caterpillar on a milkweed leaf that I was pretty sure was a Monarch butterfly-to-be (Danaus plexippus). The colored stripes were very similar to the one whose photo I previously posted, but this one was significantly smaller.

I decided to do some research on the life cycle of the Monarch to try to find out why this caterpillar was so small. The website butterflybushes.com has a wonderful article on the development of the Monarch. I learned that the larva is so small when it hatches that it can barely be seen, but it then consumes its body weight in milkweed leaves daily (Don’t try that at home!). During the 9-14 day larval stage, the caterpillar sheds its skin five times. Obviously this little guy is in a much earlier stage of development than the previous one, who was probably about ready to move to the pupal stage.

Here are a couple of shots of the little Monarch caterpillar that I took with my Canon 100mm macro lens.

Tiny Monarch caterpillar at rest

Tiny Monarch caterpillar eating milkweed

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.