from caterpillar to chrysalis

Two summers ago our family had the privilege of watching 20+ caterpillars hatch and go through the amazing process of turning into butterflies.  I had stumbled upon a milkweed plant at Home Depot, and that was the beginning of an amazing summer.

If you haven't read those posts, there are three and you can read them here, here and here.  At the end of the series, I promised to post some more photos...

Two years later, here they are! (Better late than never, I say.)

That summer we witnessed monarchs landing on our milkweed plants and laying eggs.  Eggs hatching, caterpillars growing, and finally crawling off to let their transformation begin.  I saw at least two dozen caterpillars hanging upside down in their "J" position (which they do for a very long time!)

Then then next thing I saw was a little green chrysalis.

Despite trying to keep a watchful eye, it was nearly impossible to catch them in the midst of their transformation.  I would get tired of waiting and give up.  Or, I'd be there at the right time, get distracted for like 5 minutes and come back only to find that I'd missed it again!

Until finally, one morning, I saw it happen!

They hang upside down like this for a very long time--at least it felt like a long time when you're trying to "catch" them in the transformation process.

They sort of curl up really tight, and then go back to the "J."

Their coloring changes a little bit.  See how he looks slightly greenish?  To me they look a little unwell during this whole process, sort of puffy and bloated.  Their antenna become a little limp and lifeless looking too.

They do this a lot, and it gets a little boring to watch them curl and unfurl over and over...

But, that morning, I saw something different.  All of a sudden, it was the right time, and he straightened out.  Something I'd never seen happen before.

And then, in a split second, his skin split open at the head.  It was honestly so freaky to witness.

His old skin looked like it was just shriveling up, and this very odd, strange green blobby-thing began to emerge.

The old skin lost its color too.  It must not have any color to it--it must just be the shell that holds this amazing creature inside.

What do you call it at this point?  It's neither caterpillar nor butterfly.  It looks like a little green alien!  Whatever you call it, the not-caterpillar-nor-butterfly's skin is all shriveled up.  To get it off, the creature starts doing a crazy dance.  Seriously, I wish you could see it.  It's like this wild wiggle dance.  I felt like we should be playing music for it.  Something akin to LMFAO's "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" line from their hit song--you know the one I'm talking about, right?

Okay, so here's the skin.  It still strikes me how this old skin that once held a caterpillar is now useless to it.

The crazy wiggle dance keeps playing in my mind as I watch continue to "dance."  Maybe he was just so happy to be out of that old skin?  Wild and free now?  And yet, this creature looks pretty naked and vulnerable, having just lost his skin and not yet being a chrysalis.  It's probably his most vulnerable state--no skin and no shell to protect it.  Yet, it doesn't last for very long at all.  The entire process probably took less than a minute.

After the crazy dance is over, he starts to shrink up and become more and more compact.  Until he becomes the little green chrysalis I was so familiar with.

It still strikes me, two years later what a miracle it is when a butterfly fully emerges from its cocoon.  So many things can go wrong in the process.  Sometimes, there were too many caterpillars on one plant, and they ran out of food before fully growing.  Wasps abounded that summer, and over and over again, I'd find half-eaten caterpillars lying dead on the ground.  Those who made it to the cocoon stage often had problems emerging successfully.  If they didn't get out of their cocoons in time, their wings would shrivel up, and they would die before the next day.  We witnessed lots and lots of crumpled up butterflies whose wings were not able to fully open up to dry in time.  Once, I saw a butterfly emerge successfully, only to have a wasp come along and attack it.  It couldn't fly yet because it's wings were not dry, and there was no way for it to escape being in such a vulnerable state.

It still makes me sad to think of all the tragedy involved in the transformation process.

Why is it such a struggle to emerge a butterfly?

I still have more questions than answers.

But, now, when I see a monarch butterfly, I know there are countless others who did not survive.   

And, I know what a miracle it is that it did.

*********************

the caterpillar story

A few weeks go I was talking to a friend, telling her how I felt like I just had to "sit down" in life.  I felt like I had been turned upside down, inside out, around and around so much that nothing made sense anymore.  And, I so I found myself just "sitting."  Of course, I do have three children, so there are lots of basic things I had to keep doing, but in my spare moments--the precious few that I have--I found myself in a very still and quiet place--internally.

My friend recommended a great book about the process the heart goes through when you have to wait in such moments when nothing makes sense.  The author uses very rich language and imagery throughout the book.  One of her metaphors is the caterpillar's process of transforming into a butterfly.  She calls it the spiritual art of "cocooning."  When you enter a dark, quiet place, nothing seems to be happening on the outside, but on the inside, an incredible transformation is taking place. The caterpillar must enter the cocoon in order to transform.

Anyway, this imagery really resonated with me.  I feel that God often uses metaphors and imagery to speak to me--make because I'm partly a creative type, partly analytical--they really speak to me.  

A few days into the book, while I was shopping for some flowers to plant in my yard, I ran into a nice lady who had two large flowering plants in her shopping cart.  Guess what was on the flowers?  A large monarch butterfly!  I remarked at how incredible her plant was, and she proceeded to tell me all about "butterfly weed" (a.k.a. milkweed) and how monarch butterflies lay their eggs on it.  She harvests the eggs to take into her great-grandson's preschool classroom so that the kids can to watch the process of caterpillar-to-butterfly.  She regularly checks the store to see if they have "butterfly weed," but it is very popular, and sells out almost instantly.  But, there was one plant left that day, and she showed me where it was.  I brought home one milkweed plant, thinking that maybe we'd attract some butterflies.

A week or so later, guess who I discovered on our plant?

A monarch caterpillar! Miss M named him "Silky."  

Just to give you a sense of scale...

Again, for scale.  This is Miss M's hand "petting" the caterpillar. She loves creatures!

Our milkweed plant.  Did you know that monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed?  It's called a "host" plant.  One monarch butterfly will lay a total of 400 eggs, but they will only lay one egg per milkweed plant because they want to make sure their babies have enough food.  Incredible!

Here's "Silky" again.  He was so fascinating to watch.

A close up of his "face."

He ate and ate for several days, and then on Monday, he took off.  I went out to check on him, and he was gone!  I freaked out, and found him on the rim of the milkweed pot, so I carefully put him back on the plant, thinking that he had fallen down somehow.  An hour later, when I checked on him again, he was gone!  I searched and searched, and found him on our neighboring basil pot, two pots over.  I was just about to leave the house for an appointment and didn't want him to escape so I temporarily put him in a glass jar.  ( I know, I was a little obsessive.)  

When I got home, I tried putting him in the azalea-bush-turned-topiary, but he did not like that at all, so finally I tried my hibiscus bush, which he loved!  It was time for him to make his chrysalis.

Look what he did!

They curl and unfurl over and over in order to let air in underneath their skin in order to shed it.  This is the final molting and the process by which they become a chrysalis.  So, turning into a chrysalis is really a process of shedding their outer skin in order to become who they really are.  Isn't that fascinating?

I kept checking on this guy because I didn't want to miss anything.  I shot the above two photos, and then came back out to check 40 minutes later, and this is what he looked like!  I was a little disappointed to miss the process.

"Silky" has be a chrysalis for less than 40 minutes at this point.  It looks almost wet.  I just love the incredible detail!

If you look closely, you can even see the wing pattern beginning to take shape.

 The above shot is one of my favorites.  I love the artsy feel.  You can even get a little sun flare action on the chrysalis.

Clearly, I'm obsessed! I'm just so drawn into the transformation process of this little creature. One other interesting factoid: the grown caterpillar was around 2.5 inches long.  The chrysalis is only about an inch long.  He's in a tight spot for sure!

Okay, these next few shots are such a contrast.  It's the caterpillar's shed skin.  I found it just directly below the chrysalis.  

A little freaky, I admit.  but, wow.  To think that the skin that was once so perfect was no longer suitable, and that he had to shed that skin in order to become a new creature.  

You can even see his old legs.  I guess he won't need so many legs when he can fly! 

Back to the chrysalis one more time.  Look at how he's fastened himself.  He's on the underside of a leaf on my hibiscus bush, hanging by some silky thread.  There's a proper name for this, but I've forgotten.  

This was all from Day 1.  You can be sure that I'll keep posting photos of this little guy in the days to come.

In case you are wondering, I shot all of these with my 100mm, f/2.8 marco lens.  A few photos are cropped in more closely so that you can see the detail close-up.