*Update 8/12* Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis in my garden!

[ponyqueen]

Original post in this spoiler:

Spoiler

I've been channeling two of my all-time favorite ponies this season- Posey and Dancing Butterflies... and yesterday I found a monarch chrysalis in my raingarden! I see sooo many caterpillars on the milkweed (I have three varieties) but I usually don't ever detect the chrysalises... until routine weeding lead me to this one!

If you look closely, you can see the wing pattern along the left side...
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Garden location...
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Chrysalis night before hatching (Friday night)... color is overall darker and butterfly is becoming more visible...
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I missed the emergence! (Emerged Saturday morning). I left the house a little after 5am to go pony hunting... but here is the empty chrysalis...
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Here is a different butterfly that emerged just this (Sunday) morning. You can tell it's a newborn because it's body is still quite thick, and it's sitting in the morning air pumping those wings, moving the juices from the body into the wings...
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I'll look for more chrysalises throughout the summer. I've "raised" the butterflies and witnessed and recorded the "births", but I really want to share it with more people. Stay tuned, still plenty of caterpillars in the garden!

Plant milkweed/free seed offer in this spoiler...

Spoiler

In the meantime, plant milkweed! Monarchs are on the decline and they need all the help they can get. Do you have a garden where you can sprinkle some milkweed seeds? I have extra that I harvested last year. If you are in the US, please pm me and I will send you a some FREE seeds (with free shipping!). They need full sun, but do well in wet or dry soils! (I'll remove this message when I run out of seeds).

The world needs more Dancing Butterflies!

By the by, this is the milkweed you will get (the monarch's favorite). A common name is Rose Milkweed, or google its binomial name, Asclepias incarnata, for more information.
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**UPDATE 8/12**

It's mid August and the last wave of butterflies are laying the eggs that will become the caterpillars that will turn into the butterflies that will fly to Mexico!

I'm going to be honest- raising butterflies is not for the faint of heart! There were some losses (mostly due to tachinid flies) but here are some photos of our little caterpillar we called "tiny", pictured in later posts on the G1 baby pony bottle...

Hanging in "J" form, preparing to molt final skin. Antennae have gone limp... any minute now!
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Whoa that was fast! The caterpillar is green and you can see the skin shed at the top.
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Getting smaller... firming up...
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Skin has dropped, final shape is forming...
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Voila! He looks like this for about ten days, then starts to look more clear as the time nears to emerge...
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Wow... such a transformation!
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Minutes away from breaking out, you can see airspaces within the chrysalis as the butterfly pulls away from the sides...
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So he emerged, then fell... I had to act fast to get him hanging wings down again... if this is not done within seconds the wings will not form properly and the butterfly will be deformed... I didn't get a pic of him from this critical stage, but here's his sister, "Lady", right when she came out...
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The wings grow so FAST! You can SEE them getting bigger in real time.
Again, here's Lady... wings still rumpled, and embarassingly not growing at the same rate. Don't worry, they worked themselves out!
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Okay THIS is Tiny with fully formed wings!
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Ain't he cute!
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Lady on the left, Tiny on the right.
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And released! Aw he just would NOT flex his wings for me! (or when he did the pic was blurry!)
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He's out there now, helping to create the next generation!

Thanks for following the story! 

[June]

It's really beautiful! You are so lucky I don't think I've ever seen any butterfly chrysalises in person.

[achab1984]

That is so cool Cant wait to see

[kaoskat]

Congrats! That is too awesome! I hope it stays nice and safe while it hatches!

[flyawayraven]

That is awesome! Lucky you!

[SeashellnBubbles]

I'm looking forward to having a butterfly garden at whatever house the BF and I end up in! I'd love to see that in person...thank you for taking and updating pics

[TWILIGHTCOOKIE]

That is so cool you have your yard as a wildlife habitat.My fall time hobby is spreading milkweed seeds in my moms yard. This year I found a medium sized monarch caterpillar munching so hopefully it turns into a chrysalis.

[Khema]

That is so neat! Thanks for sharing!

[invaderhorizongreen]

I hope you can catch it coming out!

[melodys_angel]

That's soo cool

[SunSnail]

Wow, I've never seen how the wing pattern shows through the chrysalis before-- what an amazing pic you got!  The garden is fabulous, too!

[MoondancerMilkyWay]

That is so beautiful! I remember when I was younger I found two monarch caterpillars and took them home to feed and hatch. We had Adult Monarchs and I eventually let them back into the wild. I hope they didn't die as they were amazing to see growing!

[Corona]

Amazing! Glad to see these gorgeous creatures found a good safe place to grow up.

[ponyqueen]

  Update with more photos!

[Dainty]

Ooh, that milkweed is so pretty :--) I'd love some seeds if I weren't moving into an apartment x.x