Newly hatched monarch caterpillar

Today I counted at least ten tiny monarch caterpillars on our potted narrow leaf milkweed plants, all newly hatched within the past couple of days.

And it's the first time I witnessed a monarch caterpillar that so recently hatched that it is eating its first meal, its own egg shell, which contains plenty of nutrients.

In the morning, a few hours previous to this image, the caterpillar was still an egg.

You can see how tiny the caterpillar is.

The egg was the size of a small pin head.