Meet Monarch Butterflies #1, 2 and 3.

# 1 on the left has eclosed and #2 is just starting too! The wings are wet and very wrinkled. It takes a few minutes to 'transform'. Watch this video. It's very cool. Also note the 'proboscis' and how the butterfly will work to curl the 2 tubes into one. That is where it eats from. I will talk about my experience with this a bit later.

 
     The one in the center is a female. I'll have better pic later.
                                       

 

 

Out of 6 chrysalis 3 have eclosed. At this stage the wings will dry for 2-3 hours. Weather pending (wind, rain, too cold) they can be released at this time. IF they need to be kept for over 24 hours then I will feed them a nectar of raw organic honey water before sending them off to Mexico.
These little ones only took 9 days to enclosed. Things are looking good. 

 

While #'s 1-6 are enclosing, I am still feeding caterpillars. The green dot you see on the top pic is from the very fresh seedlings. See the difference in size of the cats? In between each stage they do 'molt'. The cats will sleep about 12 hours or more and shed their skin. They will do this 4-5 times. I like this time, it means they are not eating!  *smile* Until next time! Bye now.