09/05/2025
Happy Friday lovelies!!
It’s Tylar- your Mrs. Royal United Universe!
I missed a few posts- but I’m back!! This post today is about monarch butterflies!🦋🐛
Just this last weekend, my sister in law was telling me how her and her two daughters were raising monarch caterpillars- in hopes they’d turn to butterflies! After hearing about what her and her girls have been doing, I decided to check the milkweed I had growing in my own backyard yard- and found these two! Drastically different in life stages but both monarchs! Unfortunately the smaller one had managed to escape the enclosed I had them in. But the larger one is doing great!
Here’s some fun facts:
✨ 2-10% of eggs and caterpillars successfully reaching the adult stage. This low survival rate is due to high predation from birds and insects, the impact of parasites and diseases like OE, and exposure to environmental factors such as weather.
✨ In controlled conditions, such as when raised by humans with proper care, the survival rate can be dramatically increased to 80-95%.
✨Monarch caterpillars only eat Milkweed. In fact- depending on the milkweed and leaf size, this can equate to roughly 175–200 leaves or the equivalent of one to two entire plants for the caterpillar to reach the chrysalis stage! (Can confirm- this guy eats like crazy)
✨ Their Chrysalises Have Gold Studs
Funnily enough, the word “chrysalis” is actually derived from the greek word for gold, “chrysos”. The gold spots on Monarch Butterfly chrysalises are due to carotenoid pigments from their milkweed diet.
✨ Monarch butterflies undertake an incredible multi-generational, 3,000-mile migration, using the sun and Earth's magnetic field to navigate, and they are the only butterflies to do so.
I already have plans to plant more milkweed with my wildflower patch next year- and I highly encourage you to do the same! I’m having so much fun watching this guy grow!
