First listen to January 16 2016. You will see a photo of a monarch caterpillar, and maybe you can see two caterpillars. That was in January, in the middle of summer.
The next photo was taken in March. Look at the shape of the caterpillar. It is almost U-shaped or perhaps L-shaped. The following day, the caterpillar had made a chrysalis.
Each day, I looked at the chrysalis, waiting for something to happen.
Finally, after about 3 weeks, the chrysalis became black. Soon I could see the butterfly inside the chrysalis. The next morning, there was the butterfly, waiting for the sun to dry its wings.
The last photo shows three stages: the caterpillar, a green chrysalis, a darker chrysalis with the butterfly nearly ready to come out, and the butterfly which has just come out.
The following day, the butterfly had gone to look for a mate. I don’t know if the female will lay her eggs on my swan plant. It is too hard to see the small eggs. It is now autumn and too late for another cycle from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis and into butterfly. This last butterfly possibly died at night from the cold.
Next summer, I plan to have more swan plants and bigger plants because monarch caterpillars are very hungry.