Raise your own monarch butterfly baby

• shoe box

• scissors

• plastic wrap

• scotch tape

• monarch egg or caterpillar (commonly found on milkweed leaves)

• milkweed leaves

• glass jar

• paper towel

• rubber band

• water

What you do:

1. Use a shoebox to create a chamber to raise your monarch baby. Cut a large rectangular "window" in the shoebox lid and tape plastic wrap over the opening. Stand the shoebox on its end.

2. Find and capture a monarch egg or caterpillar (commonly found grazing on milkweed during spring and summer). (Can't find a butterfly? Check out educationalscience.com.) Do not separate it from the leaf it is resting on. Take it home along with a handful of milkweed leaves for food. Give it a name!

3. Before placing the milkweed leaves in the shoebox, wrap the stems in a piece of moist paper towel. Next, cover the paper towel with a piece of plastic wrap and secure it with a rubber band. Keep unused milkweed fresh by storing the stems in a jar of water.

4. Place the egg or caterpillar on a milkweed leaf in the shoebox. Be sure to keep the cage clean, and replace old milkweed leaves.

5. Over the next 10 days carefully monitor the monarch's stages of transformation. Note: A healthy caterpillar will suspend itself from the top of the box as it begins its transformation. Near day 10, a butterfly should emerge from the pupa, or chrysalis.

6. Once the butterfly begins to flap its wings, remove the plastic wrap and set it free!

Resources: The Great Butterfly Hunt by Ethan Herberman, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1990, p. 21.

University of Kansas's Monarch Watch on rearing monarchs: www.monarchwatch.org/rear/index.htm — Science World, April 8, 2002