I took the picture below while at the Toronto Zoo last weekend. They have a nice Butterfly exhibit in the Malayan Woods Pavilion.
I was not able to get too close to the Butterfly, but thought I would be able to crop the rest of the picture out and have a great picture of a Monarch Butterfly on a Yellow flower. (Update: More research has shown that this is most likely a Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus), also known as the African Monarch)
I soon noticed that I also captured a few ants, but it took the Hamlett kids looking at the picture to find the real bonus. I was so focused on the Butterfly that I did not see the Caterpillar climbing the stem below.
It was so cool to capture both a Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and Caterpillar in the same shot. The Monarch is a milkweed butterfly. The Monarch is the largest member of this family that is so known because they feed on milkweed plants. Just writing this I am remembering that time when my sister and I had to go to the emergency room to have our stomachs pumped after we ingested milkweed.
I hope you enjoy this picture and the two clips from it.
Steven
Braman's Wanderings 
COOL!
Butterfly reminds me of each year that I taught Kdg. that in the fall we drove slowly down the back roads looking for the caterpillars and then picking some of the milkweed to put in our dry aquarium to watch the caterpillar go through his life cycle and then how we finally released the butterfly out into the beautiful fall days. Also the milkweed incident. You were the littlest so they did your stomach first and poor Erika had to hear you crying and knew she was next. I felt so bad for both of you. At least you didn’t get sick, the only thing adverse was the little red freckles all over your faces from crying so hard. I am sure neither of you ever tried milk weed again. love you…
very cool indeed!
Thanks for the comments.
Mom, I don’t think I will ever try milk weed again.
The caterpillar is a queen (Danaus gillipus) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danaus_gilippus
See the three pairs of tentacles. Monarch larvae have two sets of tentacles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly
Or it may be a soldier or Lychorea halia??
The adult butterfly is not a monarch. It may be this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycorea_halia
What do you think?
Thanks for the comments Mary. I will have to do more research now when I have more time. However, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_Tiger
The Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus) looks to be what this is. The Plain Tiger is also known as the African Monarch.
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Whew, what an experience! I had no idea that milk weed was poisonous.
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