Regicide?

We found a couple of Monarch butterfly caterpillars recently, both just sort of trucking along far from any Asclepia plants, their chief food source, so we transferred them to the one healthy Asclepia plant in the yard.

They both happily set to chewing away on the leaves and eventually the larger of the two set off to find a place to form a chrysalis.

Looking For A Location

The site it finally selected was the underside of a rail on one of Cindy's anti-varmint panels.

Chrysalis

That was OK; it should be fine there as long as we remember it's there.

We continued to keep an eye on the second caterpillar, but today I found it wrapped up in spider web, looking dried out and dead.

Spiders Got This One

I guess the spiders have to eat, too, but I wish they would pick on the less beneficial insects and leave the pollinators, including the Monarch caterpillars, alone.