While gardening last week, I found a funny green thing on the ground. Picking it up, I realized it was a chrysalis.
I had never seen a chrysalis like this. It had little flecks of gold, silver, and black on it, as though somebody had painted it with a tiny detail brush. The shape reminded me of a monarch chrysalis, but I thought they would be larger. I remembered, however, that I had cleared some milkweed vine the day before from a lilac bush that overhangs the spot that I was weeding when I found the chrysalis. Oddly, I never saw a single caterpillar on those vines all summer.
I thought that I would hold onto it and see if it overwintered, assuming it to be too late for a butterfly to eclose. Swallowtails who pupate at this time of year tend to emerge the following spring.
Googling determined that it was, indeed, a monarch chrysalis. Monarchs do not overwinter, and all monarchs who emerge before they can be killed by cold migrate to Mexico (good thinking, monarchs). More googling and some Facebook questioning of my aunt, who is a monarch enthusiast, led me to expect that this pupa was probably less than week old. My research also taught me that a monarch chrysalis must be suspended from the cremaster in order to develop properly. If I wanted a chance at seeing this monarch eclose, I needed to hang it from something and keep it out of cold conditions. Various monarch websites recommended tying a thread around the cremaster and tying it to the top of an enclosed habitat, or to a branch. Some suggested glue to secure the thread. I went with white glue, since I expected it to be the least toxic to the developing butterfly.
Next came the thread - a simple, long piece of sewing thread, tied snugly around the cremaster so that the knot was embedded in the glue. The glue was smeared a bit during this process, so I added a dab more glue to be sure that the knot would be sealed to the chrysalis.
I looped the thread through the grating on the lid of our trusty critter habitat.
Voila! The chrysalis hangs just as it would outside...but here it's a little more sheltered from the elements. You're welcome for knocking you down, my monarch friend.
Now all we have to do is watch and wait. If all goes well and the pupa is unharmed, within about 7-12 days (I'm estimating on the later side - I think the pupa was pretty new) it will darken and the orange markings of the adult's wings will be visible through the transparent casing. About a day or two later, the imago (adult) will eclose (emerge).
Always a sucker for more information, I wanted to find out if the sex of the butterfly can be determined by observing the form of the chrysalis. The answer: yes. In females, there is a line present on the body segment just below the row of black dots near the cremaster. This line is not present in males. To see my idenfication, check the labels on this photo. Will my assessment prove to be accurate? Stay tuned!
second chances, part ii and part iii
flickr gallery of this chrysalis
