My sister texted me a photo of this monarch caterpillar posing on a leaf in her CT garden. How lucky for her. I've never come across one of these colorful creatures and wouldn't have known how to identify it.
Another view from another garden. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed plants.
Here is a diagram of the monarch's lifecycle which takes about 30 days. (The adult butterflies live from 2 to 6 weeks.)
The completion of the four life-stage process - the egg , the larvae (caterpillar), the pupa (chrysalis) and the adult butterfly - is called complete metamorphosis.
These beautiful butterflies, found all across N. America, were officially designated as endangered in July, '22. Details of their plight can be found on this LINK from PBS.
