Before and After

The other day the casual employee came up to me while he was spraying and showed me the lovely caterpillar in the top photo with the comment "I wonder what it will turn into". Well, the internet is a marvelous thing, with a quick bit of googling I discovered that this is a caterpillar to a Wanderer Butterfly, also commonly known as a Monarch Butterfly. I even found a species name, Danaus plexippus. That is the only photo I have of one of these butterflies, they are revoltingly camera shy. 

These butterflies are more famously known through out North America for their massive migratory habits. They are found all over the world though and in Australia they only really have small migrations in cooler climates. The caterpillars feed on plants like Milk Weeds and such. So having some of those weeds as 'Sacrificial Plants' in your garden will encourage the butterflies and help keep the caterpillars off the plants you want to grow. Wanderer's also have a neat little survival adaptation. They use the toxins in the plants they eat to derive a toxin of their own which makes them unpalatable, making some of their predators ill. Clever little buggers.