Well, not a Monarch, but...

   I'm not talking about a member of the Royal Family, I mean Monarch butterflies. I've only seen two Monarch butterflies all year, yes two! No Monarch caterpillars either. This is despite having around six dozen milkweed plants and every available nectar plant they could possibly be interested in. For some reason we just don't have a lot of the big showy butterfly species around here, no matter which year.
   I do, however, have a lot of skippers and moths, if that counts for anything. If we can't have Monarchs, at least we have these. Meanwhile, we have attracted Milkweed Tussock Moths to our habitat. I realize they're not as prestigious as Monarch butterflies and the moths themselves are rather drab, but the caterpillars are really quite attractive. Just because they're a lowly moth doesn't make them any less important in the grande scheme of things. The highlight of watching them grow over the past week and a half has been seeing some predatory wasps come down, snatch one at a time, and carry it off to feed their young. When I first noticed the caterpillars, there must have been at least a hundred or so, and each day there's been fewer and fewer thanks to the wasps and random acts of stupidity on the part of the caterpillars. Some days I'd find caterpillars in really strange far-off areas, like crawling across the driveway, nowhere near pupating stage or running out of milkweed, in an obvious attempt to commit caterpillar suicide. I'm not worried that they'll denude my milkweed plants before the Monarchs can get to them, I have plenty of plants to share. Besides, I think we live in some sort of Monarch vacuum. I'm guessing my latitude falls in a range where they're just flying over and not looking to feed, mate, lay eggs, and die.

Here are some shots of the Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars in sequence as they've grown:

Hanging on by a thread...literally!

                                                                                                          

Like I said, about a hundred or so.

After about a week, they started to get more color.

For whatever it's worth, they're dining on Swamp Milkweed, which, by the way, failed to flower again this year.

I think they look like little orange, black, and white bristly toothbrushes. Not that I'd consider brushing my teeth with them, silly.

Do you think it's a coincidence they have the same colors as a Monarch butterfly caterpillar?

Come on, they are pretty cool looking, aren't they?

Look at those chompers! That leaf doesn't stand a chance!