Just thought I would share this...
June 15 - 2008 - (Yes, that year is correct) - I had a BST pupate into its chrysalis. Two days later, I had another one do the same, about 2" below the first one. ( I use both a large castle and jumbo castle from http://livemonarch.com/store_enclosures.php )
The bottom chrysalis released first, even then we weren't sure, because it was November. The first chrysalis looked okay, so, we left it alone, thinking okay, it wanted to overwinter. No problem.
I didn't put any other cats inside that particular castle/cage (large one), just in case. January, February come and go. March and April 2009 fly right by. Oops... there goes May & June too!
July 6th - 2009 - 9 days shy of 1 year, I'm walking past the house to go outside and I see something move out of the corner of my eye. I turn and let out a scream of joy. Our 'dead thing' took its sweet time. We had a beautiful butterfly. I moved the castle outside underneath the trees for partial sun/shade (it's hot in Florida, in July), and then opened the cage, sat back and watched. About five minutes later, our butterfly left home.
So, as long as the chrysalis looks okay (color, etc.), even if it does nothing... don't get rid of it! You never know what beautiful surprise you may have one day.
I didn't get any pictures of release, and only have picture of cat as it is going into it's chrysalis position (but on a different computer), I'll add it another time, sky has turned black now and I'm getting off computer.
- Christine
Never give up on your BST chrysalis'!!
