twitchy

these pic should be switched around. Twitchy got into the "J" shape a day before he cocooned two weeks ago. He ate milk weed plants for a few weeks and then prepared for the transformation!


This morning we saw Twitchy's cocoon turning a light green to a black color

I want you to meet Twitchy. He has been with us about a month now. He is very dear to our family. We have watched him from a baby caterpillar stage to his making a cocoon stage and his final stage with us today when he broke forth from his cocoon. Actually now looking up his pattern we think He is a Her. She is beautiful. Monarch butterflies are amazing! We have loved studying them the last couple of weeks. She will travel with her other friends to Mexico for the winter. She will live about 7 months opposed to her other friends and relatives born earlier this spring that would have only lived 2 months. Monarch butterfly have an amazing ability to fly great lengths. They can fly from the East coast to Bermuda. Very few insects can do that. However research shows that once they get to Bermuda they stay. Mexico is then put on hold.....Now until the middle of September we will have a mass exodus of monarch butterflies to Mexico. Maybe you'll see Twitchy is she flies over your house over the next couple of weeks...?

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It has now been 2 hours and twitchy has flown away. She had to wait until her wings dried off. She is free. I must admit I feel a little sad to know our time with her is up. It has been a great learning experience and I'm thankful for our friend Jamie sharing her mother's milkweed plant and giving us Twitchy. It has been great!

I have video of her actually breaking out of the cocoon, but i couldn't get it on the computer....