This is a female Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. This is a specimen from my insect collection.
This is a male Monarch butterfly. Note the two black spots that do not appear on the female.
This is the underwing side of the male.
If you ever wanted to see the life cycle of a butterfly close and in person, here is your perfect opportunity.The life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly is one of the most predictable of all butterflies. I should know, I have been breeding them for about 15 years.
You need to learn about the process of how to raise butterflies before you consider trying it. The following is a great link to all the information you would need to know about the process.
http://butterflyschool.org/teacher/raising.html
If you have any questions after reading this please do not hesitate to ask.
For more information on Monarchs try out the following link:
http://monarch-butterfly.com/
Monarchs start out as tiny eggs, which are 1.2 X 0.9 mm. The caterpillars reach about 2". They feed on Milkweeds or Dogbane. I have planted Milkweed in my gardens for the singular purpose of raising Monarch Butterflies each year.
The reason I recommend this as a first effort in raising butterflies is that the Monarch has such a gentle, calm nature. It will actually sit on your hand and give you the opportunity to just commune with it. I have never had a skittish Monarch. They are great with kids of all ages. Kids just need to be able to hold their had out flat, or have you hold it flat for them. I started out my grandkids as soon as they could hold out their hand flat. Katelyn was holding caterpillars and butterflies last year when she was only 15 months! Ryan, at 4, is now an old pro, handling even the tiniest of caterpillars.
We had our first collection of eggs and caterpillars yesterday. Mia did the searching and found 3 caterpillars along with many, many eggs ready to be adopted. The reason we bring them inside to raise them is to protect them from predators.
In order to adopt an egg, all you need to do is identify Milkweed somewhere near your property, or somewhere where you can go and get stems of leaves as needed. You can cut Milkweed and put it in water in your house. It will stay fresh for a few days. The last caterpillar offer was more specific as the host plant is not common to the area, thus you had to have it growing on your property. These are photos of Milkweed, the food plant for Monarch Butterfly caterpillars. It is the large plant with the seed pods that open and sputter forth lots of billowing seeds in the fall. Now you remember!!!
The following are photos I took yesterday. This is a single Milkweed leaf with a Monarch egg on it.
This is what a leaf with an egg on it looks like. You can see the relative size of it next to my finger tip. The egg is often easy to miss as it looks similar to some insects. Most Monarch eggs are laid on the underside of a leaf, but occasionally we have found a few on the top of a leaf. 
You will soon learn to distinguish its distinct shape from all else on a leaf. Usually there is only 1 egg per leaf, but we have seen some leaves with more than one egg on it.
And here it is showing the actual size in centimeters.
These two caterpillars are set next to an egg to show their relative sizes. 
Mia found 3 caterpillars, off white with yellow and black stripes, all different sizes. The egg will change to black just before hatching. This is a close up. Another clue for caterpillars on a plant is seeing a hole(s) on leaves. Their eating holes are very evident, cleanly cut, with ragged edges, with no discolorations. They often stay on the leaf bottom, so check under every one!! On this leaf you can see a hole where the caterpillars have already had a meal.
And now here they are next to my finger to see their actual size.
If you look closely you can see one pair of black filaments extending from the front and rear.
Here we have inches, this one clocking in at 3/16".
This one is looking like it's 1/8".
And this chunker is 5/16". They each hatched on a different day! 
and here we have centimeters. As they grow the caterpillars will be fascinating to watch as they eat.
You will be able to see them actually chewing on the leaf, and in some cases pulling it away from the leaf with a jerking head motion.
They are the true mean eating machines!!
They only stop to molt, which is when they shed their skin as they grow larger. I will chronicle this process as it occurs. Some years ago I did a time lapse video of the actual caterpillar to chrysalis, chrysalis to butterfly cycle. It is fascinating to watch. I need to check out if my new video camera has time lapse. If so, I would be able to post it on this blog, as they have that capability.
And this is our first Monarch caterpillar being adopted. Babs has already started to post her comments on the new addition to her family.
It joins the rest of the family's pets:
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