Janet's Blog

At age 18 days, Jem suddenly decided to stop in the middle of eating a milkweed leaf and did this: Jem decided to spin a silk anchor like many times before, but this time turned around and "sat" on the sticky pad instead. Changes are afoot...Note that even by the afternoon, Jem was still hanging in a J position. It's like Jem knows what the coolest letter of the alphabet really is. Sorry, all you other contenders. :)

Jem must be terribly itchy at this point (like me, although certainly not because of an outbreak of shingles), because the 'pillar will start dancing frantically to get rid of the final skin before becoming a pupa.



At this point the adult butterfly parts are already visible, and the outer skin showing is now exactly the color of the plants Jem has been eating. Good luck, l'il dancing queen, young and sweet only, uh, EIGHTEEN! (Pardon my weakness for ABBA.)

Labels: butterfly, Jem, milkweed, monarch, pupa

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