Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Help! Whats happening to my monarch cats?, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Unfortunately there will be predators. You could put the caterpilllars into a cage and raise them inside...but they could already have been zapped. A caterpillar will continue to eat and even pupate - basically it's a zombie serving as a living host. Most times it won't have any obvious signs (like all those cocoons on the sphinx caterpillar in the link you provided) until the pesky fly or wasp emerges. However, sometimes you can see a small dark spot on some caterpillars where they've been stung by the egg laying wasp or fly. Same goes for chrysalids.

Here's a Bordered Patch chrysalis that's been parasitized. Note the small dark spot the red arrow is pointing to.