monday, april 18, 2022

3:58pm: the two pupae that formed together on the cup's floor kind of look like they're spooning now on the paper towel. they might be dead. neither chrysalis seems fully formed -- it looks like their heads are poking out. sara pointed out that these could be exoskeletons that were never fully shed.

from moviecultists.com:

a cocoon from which a butterfly is about to emerge will either turn very dark or become clear. overly dark cocoons, though, may point to death. gently bend the abdominal region of the cocoon. if the cocoon bends and stays bent, the caterpillar is probably dead.

from a user comment on monarch-butterfly-shop.helpscoutdocs.com:

GOOD NEWS: if the caterpillar skin is balled up at the top of the chrysalis, the chrysalis has been formed properly and there is nothing to worry about. 😊

kris told a story about how he found a monarch chrysalis in his backyard when he was little and he and his mom put it in a jar. it turned out the chrysalis had been infected which his mom realized when she went to check on the pupa one day and found only a "cloud of flies." she got rid of the jar before kris could see.

from vanderlip.com:

when the monarch butterfly is in the pupae stage, inside its chrysalis, it is prey to the tachinid fly which drill a hole in the chrysalis and lay its eggs inside.

the chrysalides, in their perfect stillness, are a true test of the observer's optimism.