Somehow in grade school,
I missed the part where the students stand around a jar
and watch a butterfly emerge from a cocoon,
and I've always felt like my education wasn't quite complete.
So, a few years back, when I saw a monarch chrysalis attached to one of the flowers in our flowerbed, I was delighted to be positioned in the inner circle around the jar. For several days, I watched the soft green cocoon, with its bright spots of shiny gold, until the small jewel became translucent, and the familiar black and gold of a monarch, though faint, began to show through.
We had to make a day trip out of town, and when we can back, the first thing I checked was the cocoon. We were only gone the better part of one day, but during that time, the contents of the bright green and gold package had flown away, and all that remained was a limp, empty skin.
It wasn't until recently that I saw one again.
Last week, six fat monarch caterpillars ate their way
through the butterfly milkweed plant near the house...
When they were quite satiated, they made their way off, one by one.
I located three of them later,
hanging limp on the underside of leaves of nearby plants.
The transformation came overnight.
We woke in the middle of the night Thursday to the sound of pounding rain,
and I wondered about those small green treasures,
but in the morning they were fine.
It's supposed to take about ten days for a butterfly to emerge,
and I have my calendar marked.
Stay tuned.
Linking with Weekly Top Shot
and Camera Critters
