newbie question-- does Monarch carry caterpillar to location

[Joe]

I have a dozen Monarchs in my back yard... there are a dozen or so plants of the scarlet milkweed and caterpillars pop up every couple of days... we get a half dozen of the crysalis on our pool screen... usually quite high up. I don't know how they get there, but yesterday I could swear I saw an adult carrying a caterpillar across the garden. Is that possible? Maybe some one can steer me to a location to read about this Thanks... Joe

[Jim]

Hi Joe - welcome to the forums!

To address the first part of your post...when monarch caterpillars are finished feeding and ready to pupate they tend to wander off the plant and may go some distance - horizontally or vertically - before they find a suitable location to pupate. It is not uncommon to find them on window screens or under the eaves of a house.

As far as a monarch butterfly carrying a caterpillar goes, I haven't witnessed this myself and have never heard of such a thing. If you ever confirm or find other references to this behavior please let us know!

[Keith Petrosky]

Could it be that some insect attatched itself to the monarch? I have witnessed a yellow jacket attatch itself to a butterfly's leg with it's jaws, and the butterfly flew off while it was attatched.

[Joe]

Thanks for the input... I see Monarchs attached to each other fly about all the time... sometimes I think it's two males fighting... short bursts of fluttering, then separation, then short bursts of fluttering again... it appears to me that during the short bursts of fluttering they are attached or holding on to each other. Sometimes I suspect it is mating going on in midair... the attached pair will sometimes fall to the ground.

Since I can't tell male from female, and likely wouldn't be close enough to tell even if I could... all I have is the conjecture. But it does keep me watching;)

[harpo787]

Two rather easy ways to tell males from females:



Which reminds me that I misidentified my first butterfly...gotta go change the entry in the "diary".