I could have called this page "Tragedies" or "Things That Went Wrong," but that would be making a judgment on nature and I am trying to avoid that. Things happen, and while they might look bad to us humans, who knows if they are "bad" or not. Predators need to eat, too. So I'll just be straight-up honest and call it "Things That Look Bad" because they do look bad to us humans who want perfect symmetry and health, but nature needs food for other creatures, too, and bacteria and viruses need to survive.

		Some caterpillars make it all the way to pupation without any apparent problems, but then something goes wrong during the formation of the chrysalis. In my experience so far, there is nothing one can do to help this situation. The only "not perfect" chrysalises that have survived and produced a halthy butterfly were those that were not sick per se, but had been injured, for example, suffered a cut(s) by an accident or another caterpillar or butterfly.
		In the 2025 season, two of my caterpillars died from infestation by Tachinid fly. The first photo at left was taken in July when I was outside searching for eggs and came across this caterpillar, who has at least two T-fly eggs embedded in his body. I did not take him in. The second photo shows a caterpillar I had taken in earlier in the season, that now has a T-fly larva emerging from its dead body.
		Photo at left is of a male butterfly whose right side did not develop properly and who had some of his black lines come out silver. Photo at right is of a caterpillar that I discovered one morning dead. His body looked like it had been ravaged; it was swollen and pink like a fat pig. There were a couple of red spots on the paper towel, so I am assuming that this caterpillar had contracted Serratia bacteria.
		I have had five caterpillars take up this unnatural, gravity-defying position, attaching itself to the side of a cup and then bending outwards and staying that way for hours on end. It is extremely bizarre to watch. After it comes out of this "trance," it will resume feeding as if everything were normal. But after awhile, it would inevitably die in a pool of green vomit. Bacterial infection? Virus? And what makes it bend outwards like this?
	This caterpillar simply died. I have no idea why. I came out in the morning to check on how they were all doing and there it was, dead on the floor. There was no sign of sickness, no vomit, no discoloration, nothing. It does look like it was eating a leaf, had reached the edge of the leaf, and the last chomp unexpectedly cut the leaf off and it fell with the caterpillar. But that would not kill the caterpillar. The floor is padded with paper towels and is too soft to kill one that drops. So I don't know why this one died.
	I have lost two caterpillars to the dreaded Tachinid fly. This was the first. I found the fly larva under the paper towel padding on the floor of the enclosure and disposed of it.
		This caterpillar had a violent death by anal prolapse. The caterpillar was writhing before it died.
		This one was completely unexpected and it actually took me awhile to figure out what had happened. At first, all I saw was the caterpillar's grossly discolored, swollen body. I had never seen anything like that before. Upon closer examination, however, I saw the Green Lacewing larva behind it. If you look closely at the first photo, you can see the lacewing's head at the top, and the side of its gold body on the right side, behind the dead caterpillar. Green Lacewings are common here in Iowa and across the midwest and they eat voraciously of other soft-bodied insects, including Monarch larva. I have no idea how this lacewing got into the enclosure. The only thing I can think of is that it was attached as an egg to a milkweed leaf that I brought in, and then it hatched once it was inside the enclosure? Lacewings do leave their eggs on milkweed. But I don't know. It only happened this one time.
	Another mystery. The body of the caterpillar at the top appears to be folded at a sharp 90 degree angle, which caused its frass to spill out. Why would this happen? The caterpillar at bottom appears twisted and has some blood around its back end. I thought this one was dead as well, but to my surprise, it started moving, wandered away, and continued eating, so maybe the blood around its back end is not its blood, but the other one's. It was suggested that this one had killed the other one. I have never witnessed any of my caterpillars actually attack any others, but I did come upon a wasp puncturing a Monarch larva in my wildflower garden last year. I wonder if the caterpillar at the bottom in this picture might have bitten or punctured the top one?
	This butterfly had just eclosed within the last 30 minutes. You can still see some red "juice" (meconium) near the bottom of the photo. I kept waiting for the left side to straighten out, but it never did. This one could not fly and I eventually just laid it in the flower bed and let nature take its course.
		This butterfly eclosed in a very weak condition; it emerged from the chrysalis and simply fell to the bottom of the enclosure. It was not dead though and tried feebly to right itself and stand up. I watched it kick its legs helplessly for a long time, then I carefully moved it into a cardboard box, where it kicked and struggled for two or three hours. To my surprise, it managed eventually to stand up and crawl slowly up the side of the box. It was so weak and slow, I didn't think it would be successful, but it was. It hung around the top of the box for over an hour and then flew away.
	This butterfly was normal except for a crumpled wing. The wing never did quite straighten out, but when it came time to release, it flew out on its own.

Contact: MonarchsMidwest@gmail.com.Thoughts and comments welcome.