These larvae are spinning a button made of silk. They will then hang in a "J" pattern for several hours before their skin splits and reveals the chrysalis.

This larva has just completed an instar phase. You can see the skin that was shed at the top and the larva is eating it (gross!).  Below the larva, just above the paper towel, is its former "face" which was also shed. As I have found these faces before, I don't believe that the larvae eat them.

This larva has just finish going through another instar. Check out the long antennae!All five larvae are looking healthy and are getting huge! We still have a few more days of devouring milkweed before transitioning into the pupal stage.

The eggs hatched one week ago today. Wow! How they have grown! Do you think the larvae are beyond the diameter of the penny now? They are starting to really plow through the milkweed leaves! Just like our children, they grow much too fast! The larvae have about another week of pure eating to do before they enter the next stage in their life cycle. 

Here is an example of a larva going through its instar. You can see the larva at the bottom has shed its skin (the black blob at the top of the larva). It will now eat that skin (gross!) then return to eating the milkweed. 

I saw an adult Monarch fly through my garden today! He/she did not stay long. It was captured (and quickly released thankfully) by a mother bird trying to feed her babies. Although I have been commending that mother for being such a good bug catcher and taking such good care of her young, imagine my horror when she caught that Monarch! Hopefully, she quickly realized that the Monarch was poisonous and will not try to grab one again!

I am trying to post a picture each day, with a penny as a guide, so that you can see how fast they grow. No new adult Monarch siting since Sunday a week ago, though I am continuing to look for new eggs each day. I suspect that as June turns to July the numbers of Monarchs will pick up.

One milkweed leaf, 5 larvae, 24 hours...
I thought I would post this picture so that you can see how they eat. I am still getting away with giving them one fresh Common Milkweed leaf per day. They will need more and more milkweed as they continue to increase in size. The black dots on the paper towel are their frass (poop), which is also getting bigger each day. I change that paper towel out each time I replace an old milkweed leaf with a new one.

For now, I have the larvae in an open, plastic, food container, but it is going to be time to move into a container with a lid tomorrow. Monarchs go through 5 "instars"(I will write more about this when I get the chance to develop the "Rearing"pages). During each instar, the larva will go off by itself and be seemingly motionless. It is best to leave the larva alone at this point. It will shed its skin, eat it, then return back to the milkweed to feed. I panicked when I checked the larvae on the milkweed and only found 4. I thought one had wandered away. I did not see the one (pictured below) on the top of the container going through its instar.

The larvae are continuing to more than double in size each day! They definitively have their stripes now! So far, all I need to do is provide a fresh milkweed leaf each day, so their care is easy. 

Two more eggs hatched today, giving me a total of 5 larvae. They have been eating non-stop. You can see the difference just one day makes. The larva just above the penny hatched today. The others are the ones that hatched yesterday. It appears they have almost doubled in size! The black dots on the paper towel at the bottom of the picture is their frass (poop). 

I have not had any other adult Monarch sightings since Sunday. I have gone on a few fruitless searches for eggs. I guess the Monarchs are not here in big numbers yet.