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How cool! Lucky you- I'm so glad she emerged- it was so sad for me as a kid to see a chrysalis never emerge, and then see the tiny hole drilled in the side (probably from a wasp)
The first one, with the hole, sounds like it was killed by a tachinid fly. The second one may be a bacterial or viral infection. Both of these things probably would have happened even if you'd brought the caterpillars in. I think it's fine to bring monarchs in to raise them; as you noted, you'll usually be saving their life. there is a fact sheet on safe rearing on the MJV website, on the resources page (go to publications):http://www.monarchjointventure.org/resources/
AND if more people planted milkweed! Habitat loss (in this case, simple larval host plant loss) is a factor... but probably not as detrimental to the loss of their wintering sanctuary in Mexico.
I talked to Karen Oberhauser who runs the Monarch Monitoring program at the University of Minnesota about a parasitized chrysalis and a dead caterpillar I found. Here's what she said:Quote The first one, with the hole, sounds like it was killed by a tachinid fly. The second one may be a bacterial or viral infection. Both of these things probably would have happened even if you'd brought the caterpillars in. I think it's fine to bring monarchs in to raise them; as you noted, you'll usually be saving their life. there is a fact sheet on safe rearing on the MJV website, on the resources page (go to publications):http://www.monarchjointventure.org/resources/ So I brought in four caterpillars, plus a tiny tiny TINY one I just found this morning, shown here with a pony baby bottle and a larger caterpillar for scale:visitors can't see pics , please register or loginDid I mention it was tiny? Here are the rest:visitors can't see pics , please register or login