Last night, one of the grandchildren found a monarch pupa hanging off the picnic table. He was tapping it and it came off. His older sister rigged up a way to hang it from our deck railing, using dental floss and a skewer. Hopefully, no damage was done to it and it will carry on with its metamorphosis.
The day before, I had found a caterpillar on a milkweed leaf in the yard and brought it up to the deck as well, hoping for a repeat of last year's cocoon and exodus of a monarch. The caterpillar ate most of the leaf, then disappeared. However we noticed it on the underside of the deck railing last evening and it is still there this morning. So it may be preparing to spin itself into its cocoon. I certainly hope so.
To watch the caterpillar shed its skin and spin into its cocoon, watch this video. Amazing!
It's really cool to see how butterfly is "born" :)
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