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. All the stages on one plant; sizes and timing vary. The guide is illustrated like this throughout: drawn to be pored over together, and lovely enough to leave open on the table.

Can you find the egg under a curled leaf, 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.

A watercolor plate of one antelope horns milkweed plant with the whole monarch life cycle on it: a tiny cream egg on the underside of a curled leaf 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.

Don’t rely on a drawing alone to identify a living thing or to decide whether it is safe to touch.

All the plates The Austin Edition

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The whole life cycle, drawn on one plant