First eggs of the season

[Wyvern]

Collected my first eggs of the season from my garden - a total of 10 eggs. A few weeks earlier than normal too.

[texas butterfly]

Awesome!!!!!

I had seen quite a few eggs and I only brought in one. It is now a little catepillar.

The other eggs seem to have disappeared. I had at least 10 that were laid in one morning session by mama butterfly. The weather is in upper 80s and 90s, so it either got too hot, or they have hatched. I do see some little holes in leaves, but can't find any cats even with magnifying glass. I'll keep looking though.

I'm seeing more predator insects, so that may be what happened to my baby cats.

I'm trying to get more milkweek plants so I could work with more eggs. Maybe this fall, I can do more.

I'm also working to keep current milkweed plants watered. It is dry here.

I'm learning with my first 4 cats and I'm thinking that is a good start.

[joann0811]

That's great news! I've been watching for some time now in southern Calvert and haven't seen the first Monarch (other than my little crysalis). With your good news hopefully I'll be seeing something soon.

[Wyvern]

Saw a monarch flying around the milkweed when I got home this afternoon so I expect more eggs to be appering shortly. Guess I need to bring out the rearing cages and get them cleaned up and ready to go LOL.

[Wyvern]

Another 13 eggs today. Definitely a good start to the season.

[Wyvern]

4 more eggs found today..making a total of 27 collected in 3 days. 8 eggs have hatched so far. Unfortunately one of the cats decided to eat one of the other eggs nearby. Very unusual for me to get this many eggs this quickly - what I collected in 3 days is what I would typically collect over the entire season for the home garden (I usually get large numbers from the garden at work). Also found a newly hatched egg mass of tussock moths on one of my plants.. blah. they are cute enough and fun to play with, but I really need my milkweed for the monarchs so ousted they were.

[joann0811]

That's fantastic, I run home now to check my milkweed hoping that a Monarch has visited during the day and I missed her.

My 1st (and one and only) chrsalis is now 9 days old and the color has darkened slightly. I'm keeping a close eye on it hoping for a weekend escape so I can watch part, if not all of it.

Jo Ann

[Wyvern]

Current update on my first group of the year.

Started out with 28 eggs collected between 6-22 through 6-26.

3 eggs were infertile.
1 egg failed to hatch.
1 egg hatched partway and died.
1 egg was eaten by a sibling.
3 (2nd instar) cats died.
2 (5th instar) cats died while going into chrysalis
17 successfully went into chrysalis from 7-5 through 7-10
------------------
2 adults emerged yesterday (females)
6 adults emerged today (4 females, 2 males)
still waiting on 9 more to emerge over the next day or two.