Waiting for the butterfly to emerge!!

I use to find chrysalis on a butterfly bush in the orchard, but not for many many years. I even have a stand of wild milkweed I keep but have never even seen eggs or cats eating the leaves. Could there be a predator of some sort that is eating the caterpillars or destroying the chrysalis?

Texas sky, as I was driving home yesterday.

Murraysmom, schoolhouse, for the last 18 years I have had many Monarch, caterpillars, then chrysalis, and emerging butterflies around the butterfly weed that I grow for them. This year was totally different. I counted in July and August at least 3 dozen caterpillars in various stages of development, yet I found only 2 early stage chrysalis, but they disappeared in a few hours after I first saw them. Just last week I counted 8 cats, some larger, some very small, just before dusk one evening. The next morning, they were nowhere to be seen. A total mystery to me.

Skansen Park/Outdoor Museum, Stockholm, Sweden:

Baby Loch Ness monster, Scotland

Dragon!

Gry, what is that flower?

It is a wild Optunia / prickly pear cactus that is common in SoCal. The flowers are usually variations of yellow to orange-red. I took the photo of this one, because it seemed an unusual greenish-yellow color.

Thank you, gyr. Love that green flower. You take lovely pictures.

I miss my camera! Phone is so cheap, it focuses on whatever it chooses. Makes it hard to catalog. This is about the subject, not the shot ;)

Is it three or four? I think three. Echinacea tennesseensis. First bloom ever on this plant

About the only chrysalis you'll find on a milkweed is the Monarch, and Monarchs caterpillars exclusively feed on Milkweed. That's where they pickup the foul tasting chemical that keeps birds from feasting on them. A bird, once trying to snack on one learns to never to do this again.

There has been a crash of the Monarch population. It happened when an unusual cold wave stuck their wintering ground in Mexico and greatly reduced the population. Environmentalists have been watching to see if the Monarch Butterfly can re-establish itself. Its a touch and go situation.

Looks like three to me, rob. That's an interesting mutation!

Very sad about the monarchs. I hardly ever see them anymore and it wasn't that long ago that they were a common butterfly. I hope they are able to make a comeback.

The only caterpillars I had on my milkweed were tussock moth. I did see a couple of monarch butterflies. I had a couple of swallowtail caterpillars, watched helplessly as a wasp came and took one away. Two days later, zero caterpillars. It's eerily quiet. No birds or butterflies this evening?

I have tons of caterpillars of all kinds currently. It seems the Monarchs are the ones having the most problems. Had a couple just die while hanging in the “J” shape and some chrysalis turning dark. And not in the good way that shows they are ready to come out.

Beautiful pictures from all. I have a question. Do you/ can you zoom in on the pictures? I took some pictures earlier and texted them to my daughter. She was on a computer she couldn’t zoom in, so she didn’t get why I was excited to catch the moment. Never mind that it took me at least 5 minutes and half a dozen mosquito bites to get my camera to focus.

Oops. Since this is the “I will show you mine”, I probably should.

Edited to ask another question. Do the pictures look sharper to you if you actually click on them and get the box pop up?

Iris, for me if the photo is vertical it's smaller when I zoom in but if it's horizontal it zooms in larger. Your photo enlarges for me and that is one awesome photo. Worth the mosquito bites, I'd say!

It enlarges for me on my laptop too. GREAT shot Iris!

I was just really excited to finally have some Black Swallowtail caterpillars again. Didn’t have them since Spring. So my daughter not seeing it made me wonder if you here can and do zoom in. I think yesterday somebody asked about what critters were swimming toward shore in a beautiful lake picture. I am not hitting the “like” button on the pictures every day, that’s still a pain most of the time, but I look at them all and enjoy zooming in. Lots of detail in a lot of them. Still don’t know what is in Raven’s tan kind of birth bath on the left though.

I find the pics look a lot better when I click on them....

It's odd for me. Some pictures and bigger/better when I click on them while others are smaller/less clear.