Monarch caterpillar

This is the very fat monarch caterpillar, almost ready to become the pupa (chrysalis) and then the magnificent adult monarch butterfly.

After about two weeks of eating milkweed, this caterpillar will be fully-grown and find a place to attach itself so that it can start the process of metamorphosis. It will attach itself to a stem or a leaf using silk and transform into a chrysalis. 

The chrysalis phase lasts about 10 days, and then the butterfly will emerge.