Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you. We wish you a wonderful Christmas and may 2009 be a fantastic year, full of joy and laughter.

In this newsletter we talk about what actually goes on inside a chrysalis and about feeding Monarch caterpillars pumpkin.

Please read on and if you find this information interesting or helpful, please forward this newsletter to a friend.

We're having so much fun with contests that we finally created a special page just for contests in general. Take a peek at all current contests!

Although a squished chrysalis seems to be simply goo, adult butterfly parts were already forming when the caterpillar was still a caterpillar. The green liquid or fluid inside a pupa or chrysalis is butterfly blood (a cocoon is the covering of some species of moth's pupa).

Photos taken under black light (and other lights) of large swallowtail butterfly caterpillar's wing pads show that the shape has sufficiently formed to be able to tell the species of butterfly by the wing pad's shape. A wing pad in a large larva is basically an oval shaped 'gel' looking pad.

You're out of milkweed and you don't know if the local nursery has sprayed their milkweed with insecticide or your local nursery doesn't carry milkweed. You find milkweed from an online nursery such as ours only to discover that the plants and shipping comes to far more than your budget allows. You absolutely have no milkweed and no way to obtain milkweed. What do you do???

Try pumpkin or cucumbers! Yes, you may lose your caterpillars but if they would die anyway and there is a good chance that it will save their lives, you and your caterpillars will be happier by at least giving them this chance.

We especially thank Jacqui Knight for sharing this information with us.

Whether you are a teacher, gardener, farmer, or any other profession/life that includes (or you want it to include) butterflies, please consider taking a course from the Association for Butterflies (AFB)!

Teachers; AFB's Monarch Rearing in the Classroom online course will be held from January 12 - 31. This is a very through course that covers rearing containers, food, disease, flea prevention, deformed chrysalises, and much more.

This course answers questions you didn't know to ask!
o Making your own rearing containers (is paint an issue?)
o Obtaining healthy Monarch eggs or larvae from nature or another source
o How insecticide can enter your classroom without permission
o Obtaining safe milkweed (what is safe milkweed?)
o Milkweed; preventing trips to the Emergency Room
o Disease 'sources' (and how to prevent disease)
o Care; from eggs through adult
o Signs and symptoms of disease
o Moving and/or reattaching pupae
o Emerging adults
o Checking adults for OE (releasing healthy butterflies into nature)
o Parasitoid prevention (tachinid flies and chalcid wasps)
o And much more!

Did you know?
1. Loss of appetite is a symptom of disease
2. Washing eggs with a bleach solution may prevent some diseases without harming eggs or larvae developing in eggs (egg wash recipe included)
3. Petting a dog or cat before touching milkweed can kill your larvae
4. Dogbane looks like and grows among milkweed and your larvae can tell the two plants apart even if you can't
5. 'Certified Organic' can be deadly to your larvae
6. Gravity is a necessity
7. Larvae use their feet to remove their head capsules

When raising caterpillars on large plants that are not in an enclosure yet are indoors, sometimes frass (droppings) are a bit much on the floor. One valuable item we use is a child's swimming pool. We simply place potted host plants in the pool and add caterpillars. Just before they pupate they are removed and placed in a secure area to pupate - such as a closed rearing tote.

Please take a moment and vote for your favorite caption!

The winner of the caption contest will receive a $20 gift card from Shady Oak Butterfly Farm.

The new photograph for the caption contest is of a green frog that was hanging out in the butterfly patch. If a frog could 'think', I wondered, what is it thinking?

It's time to vote for your favorite caption. Please send your votes to edith@buyabutterfly.com.

Have you seen the new photos that were submitted for 'Odd Places to Pupate'? This photo is of a Giant Swallowtail Chrysalis that pupated on a Forbes Rothschild Silkmoth cocoon that was submitted by Cat Traylor. Check them out and send in your photos - we'll place them on this page and will call for a vote in the January newsletter.

(Vote for the caption contest now, please!) Send your photo to edith@buyabutterfly.com. The winner will receive a $20 gift certificate from Shady Oak.

(PS If you sent a photo of a Monarch pupating on a mirror, please contact me! I need to add your photo to this page.)

If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with your friends. Every 100th new subscriber (and the person who recommended Butterflies!) will receive a gift from Shady Oak. The 1,000th subscriber wrote, "I received my thank you gift for being the 1000th person to sign up for the newsletter. It was way more than I expected. THANK YOU."

Photo right: the Smith clan (missing four due to work and illness).

Until next time, Edith, Stephen, Ester, Michelle, Christina, Rachel, and the gang