This mesmerising footage shows the incredible metamorphosis of monarch butterflies from eggs through caterpillars to chrysalis - before the beautiful insect emerges and takes flight.<br /><br />Sam Limmage-Werner, 25, began raising his own monarch butterflies in 2019 after receiving some milkweed seeds for Christmas.<br /><br />Monarch larvae feed exclusively on milkweed plants and he was soon inundated with butterflies and had to buy more plants to keep up with the voracious caterpillars.<br /><br />Customer success manager Sam, from Wellington, New Zealand, has been posted his videos online and the reaction has been overwhelming.<br /><br />He said: “A friend of mine got some milkweed seeds from one of her patients and she gave them to me knowing I absolutely love plants.<br /><br />“I just planted them and didn’t expect much..but now they are my life!<br /><br />“I work in advertising for a news company but I still put loads of time and effort into raising these beautiful creatures.”<br /><br />Sam’s journey with the butterflies hasn’t always been a smooth flight.<br /><br />He said: “I had never raised them before so I had no idea what to expect.<br /><br />“After I planted the seeds, I quickly started getting eggs that turned into caterpillars.<br /><br />“I’ve even had to buy more plants as there were just so many of them! I honestly thought my first one would be dead. <br /><br />“I brought them inside for the first time and ended up finding caterpillars in EVERY PART of my house - I thought ‘You guys are like 2 inches, how have you travelled metres?’.”<br /><br />Sam eventually found his way with raising the beautiful insects after working hard and researching the process every single day.<br /><br />He added: “I’ve found that there is a wealth of support and education groups online - everyone is raising them!<br /><br />“I didn’t know anything before and now I am completely fascinated. <br /><br />“I feel so much pride that I get to see them go from these teeny tiny one millimetre eggs to watching them fly off on their own as these amazing creatures."<br /><br />The reaction online to his critter collection has been overwhelming, but Sam says he is glad to be inspiring so many people to help nature.<br /><br />He said: “I’m asked so many questions every day that I just can’t answer - one of my videos has almost 10,000 comments!<br /><br />“It’s really cool to be able to teach people how to raise them properly and help them understand why it's so important to do so.<br /><br />“There are a lot of things online saying that their population is declining rapidly so it’s vital that we know how to help them."<br /><br />Sam has no plans to stop raising Monarch Butterflies and will continue to share his experiences online.<br /><br />He said: “I hope I can give people a better understanding of nature and all the tiny little journeys that things go on to be what they are.<br /><br />“There are lots of little elements that make the world the incredible place that it is.<br /><br />“Nature is just really cool and there’s SO many small ways that humans can help it."
