Pumpkin
Pumpkin as an alternative food for larvae in the latter stages
I will attach a photograph taken from a video by Marilyn Corbishley of Taradale, Napier. Marilyn’s excellent video footage of the Monarch in all stages is being made available on a CD for schools and other interested groups, at the Festival of Flowers & Romance in Christchurch. For more information about the CD, write CD@monarch.org.nz. The festival (and CD) are being launched on Friday this week, 10th February 2005.
But Marilyn has given me permission to post three shots from her video of her larvae (caterpillars) eating pumpkin. When we mentioned this to other Monarch-lovers overseas, none of them had heard of pumpkin being used as an alternative food for when you run out of milkweed (Swan plant). Remember, it is only in the very last stages of the caterpillar’s life that you can feed it pumpkin instead of milkweed - otherwise the caterpillars will not form properly.
