Queen butterflies

Males on the left; females on the right.  Dorsal surface (upperside) above.  Ventral surface (underside) below.

Rush Milkweed

Rush milkweed (Asclepias subulata) is one of the more common desert milkweeds that support queens.  This milkweed can be found growing as an ornamental plant in Phoenix, Tucson, and nearby subarbs.  Courtesy interent photo.

Rush Milkweed in bloom

Queen females deposit eggs near the blooms of rush milkweed.  Leaves in the background are of another milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) which queens use in Utah.  These leaves were placed in this photo simply for contrast purposes of photography.

Getting eggs out of live Queen Females

This is a photo of one of many possible cages designed to get eggs out of a Queen female.  Before caging her for eggs, make sure she is well fed.  This page demonstrates how to feed live female butterflies.  Place milkweed in bottles and place cage over the bottles.  Expose females to filtered sunlight.  (Venetian blinds or shady trees can create this effect.)

Queen egg

Queen females deposit eggs on the stems and near the blooms of rush and other milkweeds.

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Newly hatched queen caterpillars are cannibalistic if they find other queen or monarch eggs.  The best thing to do when your live female lays more than one egg (this is often the case) is to cut away the egg and place it individually into a small plastic container, like a solo or sweetheart cup, and wait for it to hatch.  Then place it on fresh cuttings of milkweed in your rearing cage or bucket.

Milkweed cuttings in bottled water

This particular variety of milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) looks drastically different to common milkweeds of SE Arizona.  But, the principal is the same.  To avoid cannibalism, separate caterpillars on leaves and blooms of milkweed cuttings in water and place in rearing bucket.  Milkweed cuttings will only stay useable for about five days at which time you will need to replace it out again.  The best way to move caterpillars from old plant to new plant is to cut around the caterpillar with scissors and place it on top of the new cuttings. 

Milkweed Cuttings inside Bucket Cage

Once you have setup your milkweed bouquet and have placed your caterpillars on it, place that inside a rearing cage or a five gallon bucket with a screen lid.

It is important that your rearing setup has a screen lid in order to provide plenty of ventillation; not because the caterpillars need to breathe; but moreso because caterpillar droppings need to dry.  (Otherwise caterpillars can get sick.)

Queen First Instar Caterpillar

Like young monarch caterpillars, queen first instar caterpillars will burrow a hole in its host plant.

Queen Second Instar Caterpillar

Unlike monarch caterpillars, queen larvae have an extra set of fleshy filaments towards the middle segments of the larva.  These larvae are similar to soldier caterpillars.

Queen Fourth Instar Caterpillar

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Queen Fifth Instar Caterpillar

Queen fifth instar caterpillar.

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Queen Prepupa

Similar to a monarch, When a last instar queen caterpillar is through feeding, it will seek out a spot to form a chrysalis.  It accomplishes this by attaching itself either to a leaf, stem, or elsewhere using silk to create what we call a cremaster.  Once it sheds its skin, it will form its chrysalis.

Queen pupa

Here is a photo of a queen that recently pupated.  The shininess (sp?) of this chrysalis diminishes a bit as it settles into its typical coloration a few hours after pupating.

Attach pupa to lid of emergence container

Once your queen prepupa has formed a chrysalis, cut around the milkweed it pupated on attach to the lid of an emergence container.