While walking down the school's north sidewalk on September 6th, I spotted a female monarch butterfly visiting the pigeonberry, salvia, and green milkweed. I filed the event in my mind. On Friday as we were going to journal in the outdoor classroom, Anthony noticed a large caterpillar feeding on the milkweed. We collected it and found three more. Being in their 5th instar, we cut a stem full of leaves for each and put them in an unused reptile habitat.
When I arrived at school today, I checked out the monarch mansion. Lots of scat, 4 bare stems. No caterpillars. I scanned the entire container. Nothing. I gingerly pried off the lid and there they were. Four pupae.
Today I checked the Species Study spreadsheet and found a 6th grade student, Sommer, who selected monarch's for her 3-year study. We went out during her advisory class and I showed her three sites with three different types of milkweed. When we examined the green milkweed, we found another caterpillar. It appears to be in its 4th instar. Sommer brought it in and put it in a capture box with fresh leaves. She's going to keep it in Mr. Rosenberg's classroom until it emerges.
photo by Sommer
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