The Bugs in the Backyard: Queen of Butterflies

Today ended another season in my backyard. I don't mean it was another version of the end of summer, we've had the ends of meteorological, social, and astronomical summer already. Today was the end of my monarch butterfly season. My final butterfly eclosed. She was the 30th, I think. I had 30 eclosures, one that failed to become a chrysalis because it was already infected with a parasitic fly, and one tiny caterpillar that was eaten by a larger caterpillar. So 93.75% of the caterpillars I found in my backyard or hatched from eggs grew up to become butterflies. In the wild about 90% of monarch caterpillars fail to make it to butterfly–it's a rough world for caterpillars. In fact, I found a lot of dead caterpillars this summer, not monarchs (aside from the one that failed to become a chrysalis), but many other species, many more than I am used to finding. I feel happy that I was able to protect those that I did, even if it is a tiny, practically immeasurably small proportion of the population. But if I hadn't committed to spending my summer collecting food and vacuuming up frass, 27 of those 30 caterpillars would never have grown wings. I even found a friend to look after them when I went away for a few days. Every eclosure was a joyous event. The first flights of these delicate beauties were glorious to watch. But maybe they are not so delicate after all: the final generation of butterflies in the fall, which includes the ones that eclosed last month in my dining room, and the one that eclosed today, are insects of incredible strength who will be flying to Mexico for the winter. Those fragile wings will carry them thousands of miles. It has a lifespan about 8 times as long as a butterfly from a generation earlier in the year (about 8 months instead of one). It's one of nature's triumphs. And it looks like it has been a triumphant year for monarch butterflies. Before this summer I had not even seen a monarch butterfly in my backyard in at least 2 years. The last time I found any monarch caterpillars was 2012 (when I think I raised 19 of them). But it is not just in my backyard that they have had a great year. I have been seeing monarch butterflies all over. Just last weekend we were in Rhode Island, and saw a field where there were multitudes of them. The weekend before that we were in another field (this makes it sound like I have weird ways of spending my weekends...) where there were also monarch butterflies flitting around. I have seen them beside parking lots. I have seen them in parks. I have seen fields of milkweed, their caterpillar host plant, with monarch butterflies fluttering around. I once glanced out the window of the car while sitting at a traffic light and saw a monarch caterpillar that looked to be in its last instar feeding on a milkweed plant growing next to the guard rail. And it's not just me who has noticed this flourishing population; I have read news articles about the boom year for monarch caterpillars and butterflies. Part of it is due to human intervention–more people are planting milkweed for the butterflies to lay their eggs on, and the butterflies have been making use of these gifts. I don't think the species is out of danger yet, but keep on planting milkweed for their caterpillars, and other butterfly-friendly flowers for the adults to feed on, and we can keep making it better.

So, today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

Monarch butterfly, female, last of the season. I think I already had a monarch butterfly as Backyard Bug of the Day this year, but I couldn't find a day I had done it, and even if I did, this one is special. If I did, it would have been early in the season, and since this one is from the super-generation, it is different. It looks the same, but it is different. Oh, and I counted up the ones I had kept track of (which I didn't do the whole summer), and it looks like the males and females came out about even.

Here's how it looked around 2:00 in the morning...

... and here's how ti looked around noon. You can see the expansion joint has popped. I don't know what time it eclosed, though. I found it a little before 3:00 in the afternoon.

It spent all evening still hanging around on the leaf where I left it, and was still there about 10:30 at night–so technically the end of the monarch season in my backyard will be tomorrow, but still. Depending on what time it flies away, I may not see it again. I feel a bit bad for it, it's cold out tonight. If it was going to freeze, I would have brought it back into the house and re-released it tomorrow.

Other Bugs:

A couple of geometer moth caterpillars

Chrysalis?

Shadow of something, probably a crane fly

Stilt-legged bug. I see these a lot, and don't usually bother to even try to take their picture, because it's almost impossible to get a good one... as you can see.