Ok, I'll correct myself, the pic w/ all of them, is egg, 2nd, 3rd & 4th instar, right? I know the big guy was in 4th, I watched him shed his skin shortly after the pic was taken, and he's now pupated. Some of the others are in 5th instar as of today too!

Sherry, I don't know what kind of berries these are, they were growing in our grove. That is ok about the mixup. Sandy, I have a separate software program called Color Efecs that works in Photo Elements.

Decided to read up on these pretties last night after you IDed them. (Thanks!) Discovered that in the 1930s, a subspecies was identified in our province just an hour's drive away and named Novascotiae. This could be some as they are smaller from the ones described. Guess I'll have to grow more Violas. :O)

I'm seeing Monarchs just about everywhere, from my garden, on my way to the store, on my way to work, fluttering just about everywhere. Granted, it's only one here and there, but still great to see them around. I had quite a few yesterday; 3 on one butterfly blush and I saw 2 on the other side of the yard. I didn't see 5 at the same time and they could have gotten over to the other side quickly, as they normally do. Even my neighbor, who is nature challenged, just asked how butterflies mate. I found this strange, but then realized he saw the back to back flying. He was pretty amazed, and I was thrilled. I currently have my first 6 chrysalids of the year, 3 of which should eclose today (I can't wait to get home!) and the others should follow, and 8 cats in just about all instars. This is a personal record for me, I think the highest count I've had was 12 released in one season, and I'm already at 14, unofficially. With all this mating going on, I could've had so many more, but unfortunately, I'll be going on vacation soon, so any new cats will have to fend for themselves, which is never good. Hopefully they'll be no more casualties, only having 1 monarch issue to date. It didn't eat for 5 days and was euthanized...