The Monarch butterfly lays its eggs on the milkweed plant. The eggs are laid on the underside of the milkweed leaves. The egg hatches in about 3 to 5 days.
A tiny worm like larva emerges. It eats milkweed almost constantly. It grows and molts (loses its old skin) four times. After it molts, it eats its old skin. When the larva is about 5 cm long, it will stop eating and find a place on which to pupate..
They caterpillar turns into a pupa (chrysalis). During this stage the caterpillar turns into a butterfly as its entire body is reorganized. In about 10-12 days, the chrysalis become transparent and damp butterfly emerges.
An adult damp butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. It pumps liquid into the wing veins to inflate them. They soon dry, but during this process, the butterfly is extremely vulnerable to predators. The adult butterflies only eat liquids. They then reproduce and lay their eggs. The cycle continues. (It takes approximately a month for an an egg to become a butterfly.)
Interesting facts: Male monarch have a dark spot on the hindwing and have small claspers at the end of the abdomen. Females have thicker wing veins.
The Monarch is a poisonous butterfly. Animals that eat a Monarch get very sick and vomit.
Some groups of Monarchs migrate for over 2,000 miles during August- October, flying from Canada and the US to coastal southern California and the mountains of central Mexico.
Jumping Bean Moth
The Jumping Bean Moth lays it eggs on the flowers of the shrub Sebastiana pavoniana and a few other plants in the spring. .
When the egg hatches, it bores into the soft, young seed capsule and starts to eat.
The caterpillar eats the seed within the pod and is protected by the hard pod. It is during this stage that the beans are seen "jumping".
By late summer, the larva begins to pupate. The following spring or summer, the pupa pushes through a small circular door in the wall of the carpel and a small gray moth crawls out.