Birth Day!!!

I sat at the pc this morning without looking at the cocoon. Usually it's the first thing I do. About 15 minutes later I looked up and thought it looked strange. Well, it was because the butterfly had hatched and was hanging from the top of the jar on the lace. Oh how I wish I could have gotten photos of the birth! It was at 8:45 am when I saw it. It took one hour for it's first flight from tree to tree and another 25 minutes to fly out of my site. What a wonderful gift to see from start to finish. I hope you enjoy the photos. Some you have already seen but I wanted to put them in order.
#1. Just layed 2/14


#2. Ready to hatch 2/24


#3. Out of the egg. 2/24 About one quarter inch long.


#4. 3/3 One week old

#5. Sixteen days old. 3/12

#6. 3/14 Last instar. The old skin is laying beside him (he will eat it) and the black face that is too small is being shed. The green is his new face.

#7. 3/17 is over 2 inches. 21 days old.

#8. 3/20 ready to pupate

#9. Change complete

#10. 4/6 Birth day. They have to dry out and get fluid pumped into their wings before they can fly.

#11. Birth day continued. He was not in any hurry to leave my hand. Hubby was afraid he was going to fall off so had his hand under. :) I will transfer him to a tree now so he can finish his thing.

#12. Cocoon for size comparison.

#13. Face close-up.

These next 3 photos are showing front and back. His body is still swollen. He releases liquid a few times before he flies.

Hope you enjoyed as much as my husband and I did. :D

Check out my Monarch sequence: http://carlafinley.blogspot.com/2009/01/from-caterpillar-to-butterfly.html

The change has started

Last night he started acting funny. He crawled all over the jar, up and down, around every stick and leaf. There was a lot of liquid in the bottom of the jar called meconium. Then he settled on a spot. I told Mike, I bet it starts tonight. Well, sure enough it did. See the little saddle of silk? That's how he holds himself on while he pupates. I wonder how long it will take for him to go to full chrysalis? The monarch was almost immediate. I've searched all over the net but cannot find info on this guy except they say Giant Swallowtails do everything slowly.

They grow too fast

The little guy was born on Feb. 24 and is now 16 days old. He (or she) is now over an inch long. Remember when it was born? Only about an eighth of an inch long. The white end on the right is the end. You should see it raise up and shoot a ball of poop. LOL It's hilarious. All the other ones that I left in the tree are gone. :( I'm glad I was able to rescue this one.