Beautiful, beautiful! Congratulations on the wonderful success there. Amazing pictures. Thanks so much for sharing those with us.

We live in a monarch migration path and look forward to it every year. Volunteers go out and document the sightings and special areas are maintained for them.

So beautiful. I occasionally hand rear cats but I can't stand cleaning up the frass, especially in the later instars when the poop seems to pile up several times a day. Have you attempted to hand rear any other varieties? You should check out the butterfly forum.

Thank you Siam, what a beautiful presentation! Congrats!

Karyn, Yes the poop does seem to pile up in the later instars!! I have tried rearing other varieties yet. But Im gonna try with the polydamas swallowtail when my aristolocia plant are big enough and if they attract any to lay eggs.
Siam.

That is so cool, Siam! Congratulations,proud Daddy!LOL

Theresa

That is a fantastic pictoral presentation of raising Monarchs, Siam- great job. Good luck with future similiar projects- I look forward to seeing what you can do with other species!
I just love how the Monarches hang under the leaves like you caught on your camera!

Hey Siam, nice pictures and lovely butterflies. Congrats.
It must be so nice to see all the butterflies in your garden. I am so happy that my seeds helped you in raising them.

Pat

Siam if the polydamas swallowtail cats are as easy to raise as the black swallowtails you should have a good result hand rearing them.

You live in the perfect area to grow Calotropis giganteas (Crown flowers). It's a giant milkweed and in your zone it would reach it's full size. So far mine only get a few feet tall and I never get seed pods but I bet they'd get tree size for you. It's a spectacular plant and in Hawaii they make lei's out of the blooms.

Do the monarchs in the islands migrate like the ones in the US? Did you set the monarchs on the brugs after they eclosed or did they congregate their on their own? I've never had a monarch on my brug blooms or foliage but they do like to nectar on my passies. Now if I'd just get some Gulf Fritillary's to visit my passies I'd be happy.

Here is a link that might be useful: crown flower

Karyn, the Calotropis (giant milkweed) is a common plant here. It grows on the roadside sometimes. But strangely the monarchs dont seem to feed on it and i havent really notices cats on it either. I actually dont like it. I find it kinda ugly (the plant). I was considering including it in my garden, but the monarchs seem to prefer asclepias curssavica.
Nope the Monarchs here dont migrate and they live for quite a few months.
I was raering them in a plastic shoe box type container. When they eclosed i would take them out and put them onto plants in the garden. The brug was a nice area for them to dry their wings fully.
Im growing passiflora edulis currently and trying some other passiflora seeds. I hope to get gulf fritilary butterflies soon.

Ive noticed the hummingbirds are increasing. Everyday in my little garden i see about 3 varieties of hummingbirds that come to visit my plants. Cant get pics because they are so fast. The copper rumped hummingbird, the white chested emrald hummingbird and the little hermit hummingbird are regulars. over the last 2 weeks ive noticed a new one!!! and my favourite! A ruby topz hummingbird visits my lantana every day several times per day. its beautiful. I need to get myself a new camera, and them hopefuly i can take some pics of them :)
Siam.

I can't believe you don't like crown flowers. I love the blooms. They are like regular milkweeds on steroids. lol I used the big (3') mesh laundry baskets for raising caterpillars. That way I didn't have to worry about them eclosing and not having enough room to dry their wings. I couls also put whole potted milkweed plants in it so I wasn't constantly having to pick fresh leaves.

I love hummers. We only have the Ruby Throated variety and I've just recently started seeing them in the yard. They are mean little F'ers! They are so territorial. What's driving me nuts now are the woodpeckers. For some reason they enjoy pecking the flashing on my roof. What a racket!

Great job!

So, here it its May 5, 2012 and I'm undertaking this process in Oregon. Just so all reader's are aware, Oregon wiped out its supply of Milkweed in the mid 90's. Now, Monarchs need to fly through the state without being able to lay any eggs on host plants.

Having enough MW for the larvae to eat is key, then, after they come out of the chrysalis, one needs to make sure enough flowers are in bloom to feed them.

Did you do this again? Dave

Dave, good luck with your monarchs.

When the butterflies lay eggs on my host plants, the cats eat everything off the plant, down to the stems. They love bronze fennel, parsley, and many of the milkweeds in my yard that reseed. Then, many times they make the chrysalis right on the bare stems or on nearby shrubs. NE Georgia here.

I used to raise Monarchs as well. They are so beautiful. I used to work at a nursery and would just bring home an entire Asclepias tuberosa with a few of the caterpillars and just place the entire plant in an empty fish tank. They would eat & eat & eat. Then they would climb down the plant, climb up the walls of the fish tank, and across the top into their cocoons.