The Culprit!

For the monarch butterflies, I decided to plant two varieties of Asclepias or milkweed.  I had two packets of seeds that I cold-treated.  I planted them when they were ready, and eight seedlings emerged.  Those eight turned to six small but healthy plants. Here's what they looked like.  There's a hint in this picture of what is about to happen.

After a few days, I noted that my milkweed plants had disappeared. I took the picture below when the mosquitoes were out in full force, so I didn't stick around to work on the outwitting the auto-focus of my camera.  That blur is a stem.

All that work refrigerating the seeds and weeding and babying the plants--gone to waste!  Well, actually not to waste.  Here's the culprit in the photo below.

Those plants fed a very healthy monarch caterpillar.  I don't know if the plants will recover, but I'm glad I did it.