The Monarch Butterfly’s metamorphosis is a journey through clear casings beginning with an egg. A tiny caterpillar carves a hole in a clear intricately etched dome capsule and exits while entering the hairy leafy landscape of its host plant Milkweed.
The teeny caterpillar then makes a meal of the nutritious casing and begins chewing its way about the plant pausing to change skin four times, as it grows too big to be contained.
The fifth and final change of its tight clear and black-stripped skin finds the caterpillar hanging and pulling up the curtain, so to speak, to what it has been nurturing within all along . . . a chrysalis is born to form. Within hours the outer clear casing hardens protecting the inner jade green cellular soup and templates that make up the new Monarch Butterfly chrysalis.
Life is not still within this final casing. A complete metamorphosis is underway. A marvel to witness and joyous to mull over.
To see and learn more about the Monarch Butterfly Metamorphosis visit Flower Hill Farm.
Carol Duke
Carol Duke is an artist and farmer who has worked with the land on a Western Massachusetts hillside for over thirty years. During this time her land has evolved into a diverse wildlife habitat. Carol features the flora and fauna that live and visit her farm on her blog http://flowerhillfarm.blogspot.com/ As vital wildlife habitats are destroyed daily, Carol hopes to inspire others to garden for wildlife, while becoming activists for wild places the world over. Her nature photography has appeared in magazines, books and newspapers.
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