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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Metamorphosis

Lake Vermilion couple raises and releases wild monarchs

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 8/2/17

One of the most incredible events in nature is the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. While most of us only read about the process, George and Barb Peyla, of Lake Vermilion, are able to …

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Metamorphosis

Lake Vermilion couple raises and releases wild monarchs

Posted

One of the most incredible events in nature is the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. While most of us only read about the process, George and Barb Peyla, of Lake Vermilion, are able to watch this remarkable transition, up close, time and again each summer.

The couple has long had an appreciation for the workings and wonders of the natural world, but they’ve taken a particular interest in recent years with the remarkable life cycle of the increasingly threatened monarch butterfly. It started several years ago, when George planted a patch of milkweed in his garden. It quickly spread, crowding out some of his other flowers, but it also attracted monarchs, which exclusively lay their eggs on the plant, typically on the underside of leaves. When those eggs hatch, the tiny caterpillars feed voraciously on the milkweed leaves, a process that not only enables them to grow quickly, but also imbues them with the toxins found in the plant’s milky sap. Those toxins are a defense against predators, which quickly learn to avoid monarch adults.

Soon enough, George and Barb started watching for signs that monarchs were making use of the milkweed in their yard. They checked the underside of leaves for eggs, and eventually for the uniquely striped caterpillars. And most of all, George said he’s searched for a monarch chrysalis, which he has yet to ever find in the wild.

So the couple started bringing the monarch caterpillars into their house, keeping them in jars. They provide them with their steady diet of fresh milkweed leaves and watch as the caterpillars grow and eventually transform themselves into the inch-long, jade-like chrysalis, complete with what appear to be golden droplets arranged in a partial ring near the top. This year, they brought ten of the caterpillars inside, and all have since completed the transformation to butterflies, at which point they release them.

While we typically think of butterflies and moths spinning themselves a cocoon, that’s not how it works with monarchs. The Peylas, who have watched the process many times, note that the caterpillar first attaches its rear end to a firm location, then holds its body in the shape of a “J”. Then it starts to wriggle, in an effort to shed its outer layer of skin. “All of a sudden the skin drops off and it’s a chrysalis,” said George.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the monarch is transformed. During that time, the Peylas check their progress daily. Barb says you can tell when the pupae are getting ready to emerge because the chrysalis first gets darker and then the orange of the developing wings begins to be visible through the translucent skin of the chrysalis.

Then, suddenly, the new monarch appears, although it doesn’t yet resemble the butterfly we’re used to seeing. “At first,” said George, “the monarch’s wings are small and their abdomen is greatly enlarged.” But over the course of an hour or two, the monarch slowly pumps the extra fluid in its body into the wings, inflating them to full size.

But the monarch’s shape-shifting is hardly the end of the surprises this remarkable insect has in store. The adult butterflies that the Peylas release each summer are members of the generation of monarchs that undertake an epic migration, from the central part of North America (northern Minnesota is near the northernmost part of their range), to the mountains of west-central Mexico, where they winter in massive congregations. Come spring, those butterflies will begin trekking north, but they’ll never see the northwoods again. The journey north takes as many as five generations before the descendents of the monarchs released by the Peylas make it back to Minnesota.

Along the course of that journey north, the successive generations need to find milkweed to lay their eggs and feed their young. And this once-common plant has become increasingly scarce throughout the American Midwest, one of many plants that have fallen victim to intensified agriculture and herbicide use. Along with the disappearance of milkweed, monarch populations have fallen dramatically.

That’s one reason that George has a new mission, to spread milkweed plants along roadways around Lake Vermilion. The plant is easily planted, he said, using the large seeds produced within pods by the milkweed every year in the late summer and fall.

He’s created several small patches already along County Rd. 77 and monarchs manage to find them amidst all the competing vegetation. He’s encouraging others to consider spreading the word and planting milkweed in order to ensure these remarkable butterflies will survive well into the future.