I heard back from a local monarch expert I’ve been corresponding with, and she concurred that what I found is more likely to be milkweed tussock larvae.
Related, I saw my first monarch butterfly this afternoon, but didn’t have a camera on me. Despite my mad dash inside, the only shot I managed as it wouldn’t stop flitting about our milkweed only had a blur of color. I’ll still be keeping my eye out for eggs, though.
I’m getting mentally closer to attempting an online fundraiser to get a better camera, I tell ya. The house needs too much for me to justify getting one in the meantime.
Later, when my partner was home we saw what we’ve ID’d as an eastern tiger swallowtail. I didn’t have my camera on me then either when we spotted it because I had gone to meet him walking home from work and we went straight into the backyard so we could talk about our plans for Sunday in the yard (weather permitting.)
So although I’m a bit bummed that the larvae weren’t monarchs, I still got to see to two beautiful butterflies for the first time this year, and the milkweed tussock caterpillars will be darn cute and fuzzy when their instar further develop.
