Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 33, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Man, while I was typing one of my zebra STs made its chrysalis. I just put some food in there not 15 minutes ago. They always wait until you're not looking. I have another one that did his massive poo (gut purge) yesterday and had seemed to find a good place to settle down. When I was feeding them I noticed he was laying on the bottom of the cage curled up like they are in their sling. I got totally worried and picked him up with a leaf. He didn't seem to be moving and I thought he was dead. I poked him a little with the leaf, thought I saw a twitch, but I wasn't sure. Poked him some more and - out came those stinkhorns! Whew! Nothing like a noxious smell to let me know he's still alive. I'm not sure what happened to him though. It's like he got into position to make a chrysalis but without going into a sling. I know they can survive without being in a sling so I put him in his own little Gladware container. I know they have to attach their cremaster to something (right?) and he seemed to be flexing his booty like he was looking for something. I cut a little piece of cheesecloth and laid him on it. He attached to it so I hope he'll be ok. Poor little guy has me worried.

Back to my sightings, here's one of the crescents I saw. I must get them more in the spring because last year I only saw one or two and today there were three flying around.