Eastern Wisconsin, temperatures are starting to drop around the 40s at night so we're fully into fall here. I borrowed a net cage from a friend and took him inside. I'm searching my garden for the greenest looking milkweed I still have but it's starting to dwindle. Can anyone give me an estimation on how long until he forms? Is there even a chance of making it down to Mexico?

Hey y’all, I have a monarch that emerged with crumpled wings. I took some tape to her abdomen today and here it is under a microscope. Comparing it to other samples on google isn’t helping. I’m assuming it’s because the magnification isn’t enough but I figured I’d take a chance to see if there were any pros here who could tell?
I’d like to keep her if it was just a natural malformation or issue with gravity and let her live out her life in my house. But I want to be sure because I plan to raise more next year. Shes still outside isolated right now.

Do mind the t shirt lint on the tape lol

Edit: it seems like the consensus is infected. Does anyone think it would be safe to pin her? I’d like to keep the memory of her as this was my first year doing this with my 2 year old and we’ve become attached. But I don’t want to infect others next year? Any tips? Or just don’t even try?

Hello! A while ago I found this really cool monarch caterpillar with 3 pairs of its little tentacle things instead of the normal 2 and was wondering if it was some kind of genetic mutation? I already went down the rabbit hole of queen vs monarch caterpillar and it was 100% NOT a queen imo. I was looking into it and apparently it could be a super rare genetic mutation? Super cool!! let me know thoughts..

I have 5 final caterpillars of the season in 3 enclosures on my back deck. Plenty of milkweed but they are clearly slower than summer ones. I live in the South Bay in the Bay Area, CA. It’s getting cloudy and cold. One guy J-hanged for two days before going into chrysalis. I’ve scooted them into the sunniest parts of the deck but this week is cloudy. Should I bring them inside to finish up and release? I know it’s good to expose them to natural conditions but what about late in season?

The last picture I took of her before she took off

I love my big boi so much. wish him safe travels, fam!

I posted about this kiddo earlier and got home just in time to watch it eclose! This has been so much fun! Now for a good weather release date.

What should I use as an enclosure until then?

I put my last cat back onto my mexican milkweed on my deck. And it made its pupa on my cannas. It was going to frost so i took it in. And she thankfully is perfect and flew off on a nice warm day. Thats 26 in total this year. All perfect. 11 females and 15 males.

When the butterflies come from Mexico in the spring up north, why do some of them and their offspring stay in say Virginia before migrating back in the winter, but other butterflies go all the way to Canada and stay there instead? Does each region have its own butterfly lineage that is unique to that region? Or does each butterfly go to a random northern location?

I have eight chrysalis in my enclosure. I have a friend coming and we’re planning on taking a short road trip. She’ll be here about three weeks after the first palpated.
If we’re gone more than a couple of days , there’s a chance that some of them may an eclose. Should enlist a neighbor to check on them and release them? Or would it be OK to open a section of the enclosure then they could find their own way out?

I'm im zone 5b, right now we have neen having a warm fall with 50-60⁰ F days but the night temps have been dropping into the 20s. A chrysalis I brought inside a month ago is finally ready to emerge within a couple days. Is there any hope for it to survive outside and make it to warmer weather with these temps or do I now have a winter pet?

This is my first year looking after monarch caterpillars and boy I have learned A LOT. I’ve released about 30 healthy butterflies this spring. I live in Texas zone 11 and saw instar5s as early as mid February. What I wasn’t expecting was finding caterpillars in autumn.

I thought the super generation was supposed migrate from Canada to Mexico in 1 generation? Was this butterfly confused by climate change?

And if there are any differences in raising caterpillars in spring vs fall, please let me know!

There’s also 4 eggs that haven’t hatched yet so there is more on the way. I already cut down half of my milkweed to propagate it for next year. Ughhhh but at least I’ll have tons of milkweed next year 🙃

I am in Zone 6, southern New Hampshire. We've had a few frosts that have killed most plants.

I found a chrysalis on a wheat stalk today as I was cutting down dahlias. It is green and appears healthy, but not very far along since still bright green.

I do not know whether to take it in or leave it outside. It is going down to 26 degrees on Tuesday night. I have a lot of milkweed and try to encourage butterflies and don't use any pesticides, herbicides, etc. and have a lot of native plants but I do not typically bring any caterpillars inside unless they seem in danger (such as ants are farming aphids on the milkweed plant they are on, etc.). I did not bring any in this year.

I would appreciate any expert guidance. I feel like it's too cold to leave it and it will die outside in the chrysalis, but I don't know if I am prolonging the inevitable or perhaps they are tougher than I think and will weather mid-20s fine. We are getting a reasonably warm spell after Tuesday's cold where it could try to fly down south if it doesn't need food to do so, but I don't know how far from hatching it is and soon it will be very cold. I hate to think of it perishing outside but I also don't know what to do if it emerges when it's very cold outside. Does anyone know the temperatures a butterfly needs to fly?

EDIT: I brought the chrysalis in. I couldn't bear to leave it and right now the outside temperature is the same as inside temperature so I thought I should act quickly if I was going to act at all. We've had frosts the last two nights in a row so it's possible it is already dead and isn't showing that yet but I am going to give it a chance if it's still alive in there.

Starting to dry her wings for the journey south.

I also wished him a safe travel to Mexico.

I saw her do this 2 minutes ago. This has been going on for several days but often I don’t see an egg.
Moved leaf to the enclosure.
Edit
Oops it was actually October 24th