All of our chrysalids 'hatched'...our first guy unfortunately came out before we had moved them and his wings didn't have a chance to grow. We call him Mr. Crumples...Fred is his first name. We've kept him- hill live out the remainder of his short life in our habitat feasting on sugar water carnations and melon.
The other four we let go after a few days...one particularly feisty girl cut her wing flapping around in there.
We were able to catch the very last one hatching- we woke Emily up and she was able to see it crawl out of the chrysalid and hang while growing it's wings. Took only a minute or two for them to straighten out...poor Crumples! The picture quality here is low...my camera hates indoor light and closeups. This sequence of pics show the guy just out of his shell and making his way up...see his wings straightening out? You'll also see in a pic or two a little black curly thing by his head...that is it's tongue which is like a straw that they sip nectar through. The red on the paper is the extra color from the wings of the other butterflies...they secrete any extra color after growing their wings.
A few pics of them in the habitat...they sit with their wings closed, but once they open they are the pretty much the colors of a monarch- but smaller. Most are blurry as the habitat didn't like the flash and my camera cannot capture action as well without it :P
No comments:
Post a Comment