Flickr Lounge: jigsaw puzzle image
All photos were taken in my backyard; photos of the J-shaped caterpillar through the emerging young butterfly were the same female monarch. Beginning at center left and moving clockwise: female laying egg (ovipositing) on common milkweed; egg about ready to hatch and first-instar caterpillar; second instar caterpillar; later instars; caterpillar in J shape ready to form chrysalis the following day; the chrysalis in three stages; right center: the chrysalis on the rainy morning of the day she eclosed in the early afternoon; bottom row (left to right): the first few minutes out of the chrysalis, wing expansion; middle photo: all she needs now is drying time, as her wings have fully expanded and she has excreted the excess fluid onto the leaf beneath her. She took her first flight the next morning.
With Flickr down for the day, a rainy day locally, and taking a day between work projects, I decided to play around with making some collages (through canva.com) with some "themed" photos, and this was an obvious one. Unfortunately I've never observed, much less photographed, monarchs mating, but the rest of the metamorphosis cycle is included here. The collage was arranged by hand, by the way, with photos enlarged or made smaller and moved into place, not set to a grid. Please forgive any imperfections.
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