My First Instar!



Photo showing the five monarch instars.



Maybe this won't seem like a big deal to you but it's a big deal to me. On Saturday I took a class on monitoring monarch larvae. I learned quite a bit.  I learned how to identify the eggs, the five larvae stages, the pupae (snicker) and the difference between the male and female monarchs.  I took that knowledge and created a monarch monitoring site on my property.  I counted 20 milkweed plants.  On one plant I found a single monarch egg.  The tiny cream colored egg was so small I couldn't even see the peaked top without a magnifying lens.  I took that egg in the house and put the egg and leaf into a Tupperware dish with a damp paper towel.  I checked the egg every day.  One day I thought I saw the egg moving but I figured I wasn't holding the leaf still.  On Wednesday I saw the egg was gone.  I thought it has disappeared.  Then, with the magnifying glass, I saw a tiny C shaped hole in the leaf.  The egg must have hatched.  The first larvae, known as the first instar, eats it's egg and then bites a crescent hole in the leaf to stop the flow of milky white sap.  But I couldn't find the first instar.  Tonight, with my magnifying lens and really searching carefully, I found my first instar!  Oh, I am such a proud parent.  Only 10% of first instars survive to adulthood outside.  If I can get this instar to adulthood - wow, that would be so cool.  I think I just found myself a new hobby - monarch foster parent.  I will have lots and lots of flying orange babies.