Plate I

The whole life cycle, drawn on one plant

Egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly, all on antelope horns milkweed, the way Maria Sibylla Merian composed her plates in 1705. The guide is illustrated like this throughout: accurate enough to tell a small caterpillar from a big one, and lovely enough to leave open on the table.

Can you find the egg on a curled leaf tip, the big caterpillar eating, the one hanging in a J, the green chrysalis, the new butterfly drying its wings, and the mother feeding? The egg is in the circle too, much bigger than life.

Draft, awaiting expert review

A watercolor plate of one antelope horns milkweed plant with the whole monarch life cycle on it: a tiny cream egg on a curled leaf tip near the top, a full-grown caterpillar eating a chewed leaf, a caterpillar hanging head-down in a J, a green chrysalis with gold dots, an empty chrysalis case with a new butterfly hanging below it to dry its wings, a butterfly with open wings feeding on the round flower cluster, a curved seed pod, the taproot, and the egg shown enlarged in a circle.

Draft, awaiting expert review. Drawn with AI assistance (ChatGPT) from a written anatomy spec and checked against it. A lepidopterist or horticulturist reviews every plate that identifies a living thing before the guide ships.

All the plates The Austin Edition