After taking care of some morning errands, I came home to find that there had been an afternoon shower here. What a welcomed relief. We need the rain here so badly. As I was looking in my outdoor pavillion, I noticed that I only saw three butterflies. I knew that I had a total of five in there as of this morning, so my mind started to race, and I began to fear the worst. However, to my great relief, I found the other two together on a Milkweed plant. Yes, you guessed it, they were mating, or at least attempting to.
(Two Monarchs mating in my outdoor pavillion.)
I'm not entirely sure if the mating attempt was successful or not. When I found them, I immediately ran and got my camera. But by the time I returned, they had already separated. This is unusual. In my experience, mating pairs stay connected for 12-24 hours. So, perhaps they got interrupted for one reason or another. However, it certainly is a promising sign. If they do successfully mate, then we should have a new batch of babies in about a week or so.
Happy Monarching!
Caleb & Janae Warren
I've been enjoying reading about the butterflies, finally figured out how to make a commment. LOL.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! I had no idea you guys did this. And one of my fav topics is butterflies since I am the namesake in the family. Thank you Heather for sharing the link, I will be following. Much success Caleb!
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