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Well this is fortuitous. It just so happens that this Monarch came out of chrysalis at noon today. The chrysalis is jade green until the final hours when it changes to being nearly transparent.
Chrysalis in change
Immediately after emerging
After an hour or so of drying it’s wings.
I left the room for 10 minutes and missed it emerging. I’ll have to try again tomorrow as there’s another chrysalis starting to change.
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An oldie;
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Wow! Fantastic shots David. I don’t see flowers so not after nectar. Do you know if that’s a host plant it’s on? Maybe laying eggs?
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You got it Dave – laying eggs. These butterflies lay their eggs on citrus plants, the hatching caterpillars (known as bird-poo caterpillars – see below) feed on the citrus leaves. They are often considered a pest, but we welcome them in our garden.
Early instar caterpillar:
Later instar caterpillar:
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Awesome close-up David!
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I’ve been raising Monarchs along with others in the Windsor/Essex County area of southern Ontario. We’re doing this in the hopes of raising the numbers in the wild. They only lay eggs on the milkweed plant. This is the only food the caterpillars will eat and a lot of milkweed has been destroyed over the years. Raising the caterpillars indoors keeps them away from predators which increases the surviving percentage.
This Monarch emerged from its chrysalis around noon today. The sequence shown here takes less than a minute. At this point the wings have not yet been inflated.
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Love it! Great job Rob. Tomorrow we’re driving down to Brookings for a Western Monarch festival on Saturday. And coincidentally they’ve had a bit of a Monarch population explosion there recently.
Update: No Monarchs have showed up to take advantage of the Milkweed we planted last spring. 🙂 Other pollinators are using it though. We only planted eight. Four Showy and four Narrowleaf. But they’ve already tripled that number on their own.
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I am enjoying viewing this throwdown. Sadly, we don’t get Monarchs where we live. However, we had a surprise in our curly willow this spring, in the form of some odd looking caterpillars that we soon discovered to be Mourning Cloaks. We decided to take them in (to control the destruction on the willow and observe them as they went through their changes). I was slightly horrified to learn that they molt several times before making their chrysalis. It was fascinating, watching them eat, grow and change. Here are some shots showing their life cycle (as much as we saw of it):
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Great series Leanne. That is so cool that you and your family got to see the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. And to top it off it was a Mourning Cloak. An exceptionally beautiful butterfly in my book.
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Thanks Dave. Not so pretty when they are molting but definitely gorgeous in the butterfly stage of life. If you are interested in metamorphosis, here is a video of the caterpillar to chrysalis stage, 5 minutes sped up to 2 minutes:
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Simply amazing. At the Monarch festival we recently attended down in Brookings Carol got to watch that in person. She just happened to be up on the stage where they had butterflies and caterpillars in mesh enclosures when a caterpillar changed to chrysalis. It was crowded up there so I was walking Cider around answering questions about what kind of dog he is. 🙂
Thanks for posting that video. It’s something special that not many of us get to see.
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Very nice series Leanne. The whole process is interesting isn’t it. They do like to crawl on your finger just after emerging. Odd that they’re so skittish afterwards. Love the image with you daughter.
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Thanks Rob. My daughter said is was tasting her! You can see the proboscis “probing” her finger. They finally made their way to trees in our yard. The Manitoba Maple was a favourite. They appear every once in awhile and my youngest swears they are the same ones we “raised” saying hello.
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Two great shots Pat. Where do you live?…I’ve never seen either of these. Do you know what they are called?
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Hi Rob , i live in n.ireland (belfast)
Top one is called a common blue , seen loads this year
photo 2 is a Painted lady
Look here https://www.ulsterwildlife.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/butterflies-and-moths
This place is literally out my sisters back yard ( i’m very lucky ) 😉
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Thanks for the link Pat. Yes you are very lucky if you have all of those around you. We visited Belfast a few years ago on a circle tour of the island. Lovely country and wonderful folks. We’ll be back again, but that trip will be in a car on our own time, so we can stop and talk to the fairies if we like. 😉
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Micropterix calthella, the marsh marigold moth
Can just about see these little ones with naked eye
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You’ve some good shots here Patrick, I don’t think I would have known this one was a butterfly!
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So here goes one more from yesterday. Not a lot of variety from me. I’ll have to dig through so oldies.
If you haven’t watched one emerge then you may not have seen how the wings are very small and shriveled up. After a couple of minutes to rest up from the struggle of getting out they begin to pump fluids from the abdomen out though veins in the wings. The whole process takes about two minutes at most.
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That’s really wonderful Rob!
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Comma …
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That’s pretty clever Dave, cool shot!
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Thanks Diane. Shot at 1/2000 to stop the motion. Went back and tried to get one showing just a bit of motion using 1/1600 and 1/1250 but didn’t even get one keeper. It’s supposed to be rainy for the next four days so any new butterfly pics are on hold.
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Resting Peacock butterfly…
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We don’t have those around here. It’s beautiful. Was the ground, or rock, it’s on wet? I ask because to ingest minerals butterflies “puddle.” They land on wet ground, animal carcasses and animal and bird poop to get nutrients nectar doesn’t provide.
I’ve learned a number of strange facts about butterflies this year after putting in the butterfly garden and reading about them. 🙂
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Strangely it was a small strip of old tarmac in-between the grass and wild flowers, I was parked in a lay-by in a grass verge in the forest. It may well have been wet, as I remember the grass was wet in places. I never knew that about them landing on wet ground, and other things. I’ve seen them settle on brick, and old logs, and always assumed to was to get some heat.
pic from a couple of years back ..
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tortoiseshell
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Before I started taking pictures of them this year I did not realize how furry some butterflies are.
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Lovely shot Dave, I’m always surprised how furry they are! The tortoiseshell above this shot is very furry too!
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We’ve had a sunny week, and the butterflies are out in force!
cabbage white
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They’re on the fallen apples from the apple tree …
Red Admiral
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And one I’ve never seen before, a Speckled Woods …
these are very ‘flighty’, and I had to wait ages for it to settle!
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