NatureSpace has an exciting new display – monarch butterfly caterpillars! Watch them grow from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
We need your help. The caterpillars don’t have a name! What should we call them? Put your suggestions in the comments, tweet them to @tepapa or email ruth.hendry@tepapa.govt.nz.
We’ll pick the best two names and let you know what you’ve named them.
Send in your pics!
There’s a community display in NatureSpace where we’re putting up your images of New Zealand monarch butterflies from egg to adult. We’d love to see your pictures!
You can email them to ruth.hendry@tepapa.govt.uk and we’ll put them in the display so everyone can see them.
Male monarch butterfly: scent pocket on vein of hind wing. Sharell, Richard. Gift of Mrs L. Sharell, 1987. © The Estate of Richard Sharell. Te Papa
Did you know…
Monarch butterflies in America and Canada migrate over 3,000 kilometres each year. It’s the longest insect migration.
In New Zealand, monarch butterflies don’t migrate. Perhaps they’re lazy!
Visit our caterpillars
We’ll be releasing them once they turn into butterflies, so catch them whilst you can.
You can find out more about monarch butterflies by checking out the books in NatureSpace, visiting the ARKive website or visiting Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
26 January 2009 – 11.37am
Monarch butterfly caterpillar Photo credit: Richard Sharell, © Estate of Richard Sharell(used with permission).
In the summer months I get plenty of phone calls and emails from monarch butterfly fanciers, all with a common problem:
“My swan plants are almost stripped bare yet I have so many monarch butterfly caterpillars I really don’t know what to do. Is there anything else I can feed the caterpillars on?”
This problem arises because at times there are too many butterflies laying too many eggs on too few swan plants! It’s as though the butterfly is gambling that at least some of her offspring might somehow get enough food to make it through to the chrysalis stage. If she doesn’t lay eggs on the right food plant they have no chance at all.
So what can you do besides buy more swan plants? Well, there is a partial alternative – pumpkin! I say ‘partial alternative’ because only the older, larger caterpillars can make use of it. While smaller caterpillars can feed on pumpkin flesh, pumpkin doesn’t provide everything they need to properly develop. In contrast, larger caterpillars that have been reared on swan plants are likely to have picked up enough of the chemicals they need to undergo metamorphosis.
It may not work in every case, but it’s worth a try if you don’t want to purchase more swan plants. If you’re still sceptical, check out what the Monarch Butterfly NZ trust has to say on the subject here: http://www.monarch.org.nz/monarch/2005/08/13/pumpkin/
