I created this collage to show the stages in a monarch butterflies life. On August 4th of this year, I found a female monarch laying eggs on milkweeds alongside an ATV trail. I searched for and found two eggs which I brought home, fearing that they would otherwise be eaten, or if they survived, run over (the milkweeds were right on trail's edge). On Aug.7 the first egg hatched, the second one two days later. The caterpillars grew like weeds! The first one formed a chrysalis exactly 2 weeks after hatching, the other one two days later. Today, 13 days later, the first chrysalis opened and out came a gorgeous male monarch butterfly!

The photos above show the egg, the caterpillar (unusually dark), the chrysalis, the monarch clinging to the chrysalis after emerging, and then outside in the garden before taking off.

*Note that looking at this in the original gives greater detail.