I managed to get a video of a Monarch caterpillar making itself into a chrysalis. Wish the first part wasn't so dark. This was done looking through the glass of an aquarium where I am raising the butterflies-they came from outside in my yard. The chrysalis next to the developing one was formed several days earlier, and because it was in an inconvenient spot, I moved it. (This is apparently OK "by the books" , once it is solidified. ) It took about 8-10 hours for the caterpillar to form a chrysalis , from the time it attached itself to the branch till it started to shed it's skin.
Panasonic GH3 _ 14-140 lens.
Re: Monarch Caterpillar transformation
Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 3:46 pm
by Carol Clarke
Fascinating! It looks like an amazing effort for the caterpillar.
Thanks for sharing this Cindy.
Carol.
Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:13 pm
by Paul Rossi
Thanx for posting this. We have many of these just 40 yards from where I type now - in a large milkweed patch, but we never witnessed the formation of the chrysalis. We figured it happens at night.
Re:
Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:49 pm
by Cynthia Crawford
Paul Rossi wrote:Thanx for posting this. We have many of these just 40 yards from where I type now - in a large milkweed patch, but we never witnessed the formation of the chrysalis. We figured it happens at night.
Hi Paul
For this one, it happened in the morning after spending the evening and night in a "J" shape...clearly struggling to make the transition. I watched it for 2+ hours in the morning, then all this happened in a very few minutes. The clue is, after much curling, the caterpillar seems to go limp, straight down, and suddenly this green chrysalis starts to emerge from the bottom (which is it's head) upwards. I've missed several, after getting tired of waiting for it to happen. Got a good book read while waiting for this one!
