Monarch #9, last of this year’s brood, flew off to her Great Southern Adventure yesterday afternoon. Here she is just a couple of minutes after emerging:
Emerging from chrysalis
I waited all morning for the emergence, hardly stepping away from the cage as I desperately wanted to see the event. I kept checking every minute to see if I could detect the split. Glanced away for probably 30 seconds and I missed it! Caught the last half of the act, she was pulling her engorged abdomen free and then was dangling uncertainly from the chrysalis shell. From split to fully out was probably less than 10 seconds – so don’t look away! Her wings unfurled over about 10 minutes, pumped out from fluid in her abdomen. It took about 2 hours before she fluttered off, a bit shorter duration than some of her peers but it was a warmer and dryer day wnich may have influenced that.
I’ve now witnessed the following lifecycle events:
- Mating flight and subsequent mating
- Egg laying
- Forming the “J” shape prior to metamorphosis
- Emerging from the chrysalis
- First flight.
I’m still missing emerging from the egg, the instar molts, and shedding the skin to form the chrysalis. The emerging from egg is probably the rarest to witness because they’re so tiny and also likely happens quickly. So on to next year I guess!
