I’m afraid our Monarch watch for 2026 has ended, and not the way we’d hoped.

Day after day, I checked out our little chrysalis in the garden waiting for it to go clear…

Instead, the bottom turned black. Sadly this means the caterpillar is dead. It could be a virus, or, possibly, parasitic wasps got it like they did on the other chrysalis I found on another garden ornament.

You can see the hole where the wasps emerged after eating the caterpillar up. The wasps are actually quite beneficial to the garden as they keep other pest in check, but the price is also a Monarch or two.

Happily, even though I didn’t get to see them emerge…

I found evidence of at least two Monarch that did make it to butterfly stage.

And, on Monday, when I was working away in the garden…

This beauty came to fill up on the Pink Princess. It’s late for a Monarch, so it probably emerged the day before. It’s going to need all the energy it can find to make its long journey to Mexico.