Guess What??!!! He hatched!!!!

I don't know how to post a link to my other thread where I was asking for passiflora to help my little caterpillar since he was eating me out of house and home, hopefully you will remember the thread...Well, I went out to check on the chrysalis this morning and he wasn't there!!! I looked around and finally found him above the window, too bad I missed the emergence, I thought they took alot longer to hatch!!! So, here he is! I know most of you think these are a pest, but we get hardly any butterflies up here, so he truly is wonderful to us!!! This is when I first found him....

And here he is when I was trying to catch him....

You are a good Mom and your baby is beautiful.

Thank you HoniBee! It was so cool to be able to watch this process, I hope I can do it again sometime, and the next time, I will know that they don't take very long to hatch and hopefully I will be able to catch the WHOLE thing!!!

I didn't know where to post this, and I figured this forum is where everyone saw him when I posted about wanting the passis, so hopefully it's ok to post it here....

Raven

Beautiful! Who doesn't love butterflies???

he's a beauty, Iknow, they only take a couple week s or less to go through their metomorphasis, or what ever it's called LOL

kathy

Congratulations! And thanks for sharing the 'baby' pictures.

Wow that is one beautiful baby. You take great pictures.
Thanks for sharing
Sandy

Beautiful, I love butterflys!!!!

raven_locks, Very nice pictures. i missed the first part when you were talking about passies. Do you know what kind of butterfly it is. Donna

He was IDed as a Gulf Frittary butterfly, evidently in southern areas of the US they are a big pest as a caterpillar, they eat and eat and eat!!! That's why I said most people didn't like them... :O)

Raven

One year I got a little plastic container made for small reptiles and took a bunch of fritillary and Monarch caterpillars and placed them, along with their host plants leaves in the container. I watched as they formed the chrysalis and rested and hatched. It was a lot of fun to watch. The Monarch is a sort of aqua blue chrysalis and what looks like flecks of gold. really neat looking.
If you decide to do this next year make sure you release them where the butterfly will have some cover. Birds just love to gobble them up if left in the open. Sigh.
When I worked in a daycare the directors ordered some painted lady caterpillars and this large box with cellophane windows. I fed them and the kids got to watch the progress from the worm to the fly! LOL
We took them out on a nice day and released them. The kids really thought it was neat as they watched their butterflies flutter off.