Goliath Almost all the way Blue!

This is the right side of Goliath's chrysalis. Notice the top is still a little green. Also look closely in this picture and the pictures following for the black and orange wings visible inside the chrysalis.
You can see that chrysalis is a clear blue, and it will become clearer before he emerges.

Goliath is 9 days in the chrysalis stage. He is 20 days older from when I found him on the milkweed plant.

Look closely for the wings in this picture especially.

This is the right side of Goliath's chrysalis.

A Lovely, Blue Morning

Gooood Mornin'! :-)
This is a picture of Goliath this morning at about 9:00 a.m. He is changing to the blue color more quickly now.
Did you know: Monarch Butterflies rarely emerge on a cloudy, rainy, or cool day like today. Some how they can sense the temperature outside even in the chrysalis.

The Chrysalises are turning blue!!

This is "Goliath"

This is "Tiny"

This is "Thing 1"

This is "Thing 2"

If you look closely at each of the pictures, you can see a little bit of a dark, purple-blue on the top, in the middle of the chrysalises. They will turn completely blue, and then they will turn clear. When they turn clear, you will be able to see the butterfly inside.

Did you know: The caterpillar makes a silk button where they are going to hang in the chrysalis stage. If they cannot attach the black stalk on top of the chrysalis to the button, before their skin falls off, they will fall and die. It must be hanging to continue the metamorphoses. If that had happened to one of my caterpillars, I could pick it up gently and attach it to the silk button. Or, I could have used super glue to hold it up there. Yes, really, it is true. I'm not kidding. :-) If you would like like to see the caterpillar attach the stalk to the silk button, before he releases his skin, look closely at the end of the video I posted earlier.

All in a Chrysalis

The first chrysalis is "Goliath". It is 6 days old.
The second chrysalis is "Tiny". It is 3 days old.
The third chrysalis is "Thing 1". It is 2 days old.
The fourth chrysalis is "Thing 2". It is 1 day old.

"Thing 2" was my last caterpillar to move up.
It's kinda saddening, know what I mean?
I hope I can raise more caterpillars next year!
Now we are waiting to see if we have males,
or females or both. A chrysalis changes into
a monarch butterfly in about 2 weeks.

Pandora Sphinx Moth

Daddy found a moth by his shop and trapped it under the dog food scoop. He brought it in and we put it in my old fish aquarium on top of a box. At first we thought it was a locust, but when Lindsey looked it up, we found out it was a Pandora Sphinx Moth. Here are some pictures we took of it:

All moved in!

The whole "soft" chrysalis process takes about 3 minutes to complete. The chrysalis will continue to turn lime green. You can see stripes now, but in about one hour the chrysalis will be solid green and harder.










This is the chrysalis 10 minutes later
when it is completely formed. "Thing 2"
began its transformation at 7:50 a.m.,
this morning.








Did you know: Most caterpillars molt into
a chrysalis between 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
This may be some "Thing 2" do for fun at your house!!!

Still getting the house ready.

< Notice the shedded skin on top. They shed their skin while making the chrysalis.



















These pictures are of the second minute when "Thing 2" made his chrysalis.