last blog of the season...

It was a good year for the Monarch.  My final numbers were very encouraging.  I raised 75 Monarchs.  Of those I released 71, and tagged 39.  I had 3 caterpillars die before reaching Chrysalis stage.  So if you consider the odds of those nearly 80 caterpillars born/living in the wild only 2-3 would survive, I have done my best to help the population.
I had 2 butterflies "fall" at the very end of the season, and I've included the picture I took of those butterflies.  I believe that the butterflies sometimes fall after eclosing (emerging) if the temperature is too cold for them to cling to the chrysalis.  Last year I lost 4 of my last butterflies that hatched.  This year I only lost 2, because I moved the Chrysalis so that if the butterfly fell it could climb back up to a hanging position before doing permanent damage to the wings.  It has been shown that if the butterfly has something that it can crawl on such as mesh, or even paper towels that it will right itself.  The butterflies in the below picture fell in a glass container, that they were unable to crawl on the glass, therefor the wings dry as shown in the picture, and the butterfly is never able to fly.  That is also why it's imperative that when raising Monarchs that the butterfly is left to completely dry it's wings before it is disturbed.
If you are interested in trying to follow any of my tagged butterflies the website is
Monarchwatch.org and my tags are XUL200-XUL239  They usually begin reporting found butterflies around Feb. or March. 
So until next season....Save the Monarch