crEasing into Retirement: Spending Time with the Butterflies

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Spending Time with the Butterflies

Thursday was the annual Ladies Day Out. Nancy choose the Butterfly exhibit, a fairly recent addition to the Valley communities.

Two busses of young school children pulled up as we were walking into the building. The must have had a program first, as the movie theater was quiet and most of our time in the butterfly house was without squeals.

The 3D movie was about the monarch butterfly. I did not know they lay their eggs ONLY on the milkweed plant. I did not know they lay their eggs in March & April as they migrate from Central Mexico along the way to northern US. It takes four days for the eggs to hatch and become caterpillars. During the larvae stage, the caterpillar eats only milkweed leaves for about two weeks. At this point it is a full grown caterpillar and begins the next stage, the pupa. The caterpillar attaches itself by a silk thread to the leaf or stem of the milkweed. The purpose of the chrysalis is to protect the monarch as it metamorphosis into a butterfly. This process takes about 10 days. A butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and the process begins all over, lasting from two to six weeks, the life span of 3/4 of the monarchs. The second generation of monarchs are born in May and June. A third generation is born in July and August. The fourth generation is born in September and October. It is this generation that lives longer, migrating to Mexico and southern California for the winter. If the butterfly survives the winter, it will begin the process all over again in the spring, dying shortly after it has laid its first eggs.

Following the movie we watched a technician remove butterflies from the chrysalis room to a container. The chrysalis are bought by a butterfly exhibit at a market. The chrysalis are brought back to the exhibit home base where they are glued several to a string. The strings are hung in a environmentally controlled hatching area. Once they are hatched, and their wings are dry, the butterflies are carefully captured and removed.

an Atlas Moth from Asia

recently emerged from its chrysalis

I LOVE its wings

another butterfly also hanging from the chrysalis

not ready to fly just yet

After watching the capturing process and learning there are market places that sell the chrysalis, we headed into the conservatory to watch the butterflies. It was a photographer's delight.