The Garden Acraea is by far the most numerous butterfly in our little garden, and as I type this there’s at least a dozen of them flitting around the plumbago and Cape honeysuckle shrubs in my field of view. This year I’ve paid even more attention than usual to them and been rewarded with a window into their fascinating life cycle.
Two Garden Acraeas mating
In April we started noticing large numbers of caterpillars in their final instar moving around the garden, with some of them even finding safe refuges on the patio furniture and security bars in front of the windows where they could start their metamorphosis.
It took several months for them to shed their last caterpillar “skin” to reveal the hard chrysalis inside which they were transforming. Sadly some of the pupae dropped from their safe havens, but I could save a few from marauding ants and put them in a jar on my desk where I could keep a close eye on them.
It didn’t take anywhere near as long – only a few weeks – for the adult butterflies to start emerging.
Soon their wings were unfurled and they could take flight in the same garden where they started their lives.
One of the pupaes I kept in a jar on my desk taking on the wide world outside
DeWetsWild 
Wow! I love seeing the lifecycle! So different from what we have here in Florida. Beautiful.
I am grateful for the opportunity to slow down a bit and see it all unfold!
Dis nou ‘n mooi volledige metamorfose van die skoenlapper. Dis eintlik wonderlik om dit so te sien ontwikkel. Het die larwes/wurms nie jul plantegroei verniel nie? Hier is dit meestal die Monarch butterflies wat elke jaar hier hul lewenssiklus deur werk. Mense plant selfs Gomphocarpus genus. This includes Giant swan plant and swan plant, milkweed varieties that are also growing in popularity with gardeners
Gegewe die hoeveelheid ruspes is dit eintlik verstommend dat daar geen maklik sigbare skade aan ons plante is nie, Ineke. Ek dink dis ook weer n bewys van die balans wat daar in die natuur is!
Nogal so. Hier vreet die monarch die plante kaal. Met tye soek mense nuwe plante omdat hul plante opgevreet is. Daars selfs mense wat die swan plants kweek en dat verkoop aan die mense wat nodig het.
Wat ‘n ongelooflike metamorfose! Om te dink wat op jou lessenaar was en nou so mooi in jou tuin rond vlieg – wow!
Ek was baie in my noppies met die geleentheid!
This life cycle is beautifully put together and now, thanks to you, I can identify the pupae that adorned my wall last year!
I was truly amazed that they’d attach themselves so openly where anything could get hold of them, Anne. Like open walls! They must be really foul tasting to take such risks.