Danaus plexippus - day 0

9:26 AM

A few days ago, I noticed a monarch butterfly in my front yard. I ran out to get a look, but she quickly fluttered away. Just before she flew off, she bent her abdomen down around the underside of the leaf she was sitting on. An inspection of the leaves revealed that she had deposited several small, tapered eggs covered in grooves. Since they were on weeds in the middle of my lawn (which needed to be cut soon), I brought them inside to try raising them to adulthood. Over the next few weeks I plan to document the life cycle of the beautiful Danaus plexippus - the Monarch butterfly. This will in all likelihood be the final generation of Monarchs for this year, so the creature in this tiny egg may someday make the big migration south to Mexico!

This was taken two days ago - see the dark spot at the center of the egg? That's the baby caterpillar's head. When it is visible through the shell, the caterpillar is almost ready to hatch. He's been in there roughly five days now.