Meet the newest member of our family!
Cat R. Pillar. Also known as Cat. Scientific name Danaus plexippus. AKA a monarch caterpillar.



About a month ago we started on our search to find some caterpillar eggs, at the suggestion of a friend who has done it in the past.


We have a pond nearby that is LOADED with milkweed, which we know monarchs love (thanks to our Apologia science!) so we decided to look for monarch caterpillars.


Since school has been pretty well finished (aside from keeping up with science, some handwriting, reading and math games) we’ve had plenty of opportunities (despite rainy weather) to go for walks and hunt for caterpillars.

We were successful in finding only some little black guys, which turn into these moths (not my pic).

However, it was nearly impossible to find ANY monarch caterpillars. So I gave up.


We were all a bit disappointed, so one day I looked at some videos about the timing of the laying and hatching, and discovered a) I was looking on the WRONG PLANT (there were 2 plants I had thought MIGHT be milkweed) and b) I was looking for black, white and yellow caterpillars. Duh. At the time, I should have been looking for EGGS or little, teenier than your baby fingernail whitish green caterpillars.

So, we went at it again and found THIS!
I was stunned. My husband didn’t believe me that it was a caterpillar egg.


So we brought in our photographer friend Chris with his macro lens to take some shots of it. And sure enough, the ridge detail was convincing enough!
Presto, changeo, a few days later the egg hatched!
And Cat has been growing ever since.

Uh-may-zing. GOD IS AWESOME!



We are a few days away from a chrysalis (if I have the timing right), so keep checking back here for the progress!