I've had a plethora :o) of Queen chrysalides that are pale to pink in color this month. I had three last year but just this month I've already counted seven!!! Do ya'll think I need to fertilize my milkweed? The emerging Queens have all been healthy.
~ Cat
...another one...Cat
OH weird!! I have never seen or heard of that! I'm so glad to know it in case mine do that this year. I can't wait to hear the answer to this one.
There are a number of photos in my butterfly book (Florida Butterfly Gardening) that have two different color pupa possibilities for one type of butterfly. The Queen's can be pink or green. Karen
oh how wonderful. I have seen a Queen bbut never had any cats from them
Oh Donna, they are my favorite cats! They are SO cute!! I love that they have red and blue in them. Isn't that just cool for a bug to have those colors?!
Karen, thanks for the info. It's good to know that's normal! I wonder why tho? I know my BST's will be green or brown and sometimes brown ones overwinter.
Cat, are they pupating in a cage with a light background? Is that screen or netting? Sometimes the BST's are brown if they pupate on a stick.
I've never seen that color either. Mine are always emerald green.
The sparkling gold always amazes me. Does anyone know where the gold comes from and what is its purpose.
Isn't it amazing how the little dots are in the perfect row and exactly the same on each chrysalis?!
I think the dots are like a zipper - its the spot where the chrysalsis breaks open.
The spots on the bottom? They split open on the bottom and it crawls out. I'll have to look closely at one of the chrysalises this year. I've never bothered to examine then afterwards.
Tiny little miracles. Karen
Last year I had one pale Monarch chrysalis...but this year it seems lots of Queens are pale instead of green. Here's another photo I took today of the pale chrysalides.
~ Cat
Oh...and I put the last instar cats into an aquarium that has a screened wood frame lid. They like to pupate from the screen.
...and more
~ Cat
...and sad to say, I made the mistake of setting down the inverted wire basket they pupate on a lawn chair while I cleaned out the aquarium and got some fresh milkweed leaves...it had three other caterpillars still crawling on it...when I went back to pick it up to put it back into the aquarium one bad caterpillar had already chewed into a chrysalis!!! UGH!!!
I had no idea they'd eat a chrysalis! I had to dispose of the chrysalis as it had already eaten through the top part.
~ Cat
...the poor eaten chrysalis.
~ Cat
NO WAY!! You have freako cats! lol I was just posting to someone on another thread that bigger cats will eat the smaller ones but had NO idea they would do this!! WHAT is up with that?! That is just way too weird! I think you should be in charge of researching this now! ;)
Yeah, I knew the bigger cats would eat eggs or smaller cats in their way...and sometimes they'd get into scuffles with other cats but I had no idea they'd canabalize their own chrysalis. I thought those cats crawling on the wire were getting ready to pupate. Maybe it was just snoozing and when I moved the inverted wire basket it woke up and started looking for food. Finding none it chomped on the closest thing?
It's a lesson learned. Next time I clean out the cage and remove the old leaves I will keep the cats away from the chrysalides until I put in fresh food.
~ Cat
I really think it's all about them having really poor eyesight. Since they can only see black and white shadows I guess maybe both the small cats and chrysalis both smell like milkweed to them. But wouldn't you think they'd notice the taste?! lol
I can't believe that I read this today, and then saw this today :( Wahhhh.
DH moved a Praying Mantis for me when he came home. Mr. PM had been stalking my babiest cat all day. We moved him to the sunflowers - I hope he eats ants because they are there!
I think I am going to run out of fennel before these guys get to chrysalis stage!!
~Sunny
Don't worry because it looks like you've got enough food for a while. They will eat the seeds and even the stalks if they need to. When my fennel has seeds it's always the place to find them all.
I just had that happen here...the cats eating other chrysalis'. I guess I had too many cats in one cage :( My son had called me over hollering "Mooooommmmmm, this caterpillar is eating this chrysalis!!!"
So sad, but..I guess that's nature.
I have a bazillion GF cats on what used to be my passionvine. It was huge, now it's...nothing but sticks. We were sitting on the porch, watching cats crawling across the lawn, looking for a place to hang. I have chrysalis' EVERYWHERE!! Hanging on my front door, hanging on potted plants, hanging on my porch ceiling, hanging off my bbq...you name it, and there is a chrysalis LOL
Seriously, last week, I bet I could have counted over 200 caterpillars on the "vine".
Amazing
I have 11 cats this morning - can't believe it! I've been moving the baby cats off the branches where the cannabalizing bigger cats are. Now I have two big cats on one branch..!!! (bites nails)
Here's my biggest buddy today.
~Sunny
Sunny, I've never seen or heard of BST cats eating smaller cats, just Monarch's and Queen's. The BST's usually get along pretty well. They will crawl over each other and get a little frustrated at the other one but I've never seen one "bite back". I think you are safe but you still might want to keep them separated so you can find the small ones.
I've seen a couple of BST cats with scars on them. I thought perhaps they'd gotten into a scuffle with anther cat and it took a chomp out of it...then again...could have been a lizard or bird that it was able to slip away from?
Several of the pale chrysalides eclosed yesterday and today. All healthy Queens!!! Released three this morning.
~ Cat
I'll take a guess as for the reason for the pale green color.I think the moisture level this year in the milkweed is less with the high heat all over.The pale just started to happen the last few batches which is when the 100 degree days in a row started .or maybe the queens are dehydrated and so pass it on to the larva. I wish we had a Entomologist we could ask.
We DO, hill5422! Kenya's husband, who posts under the same name, is one. I have asked his expert opinion/advice on a couple of things. I think good questions, such as chrysalis color and eating each other and the chrysalis are good questions (no just silly ones) to ask for help with. He is always free to decline.
Check out this reply on another thread of mine:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/642251/
It's so much info for me to process that I haven't been able to even reply to it yet. I'm still trying to think where I had all my cats at the time my problem started.
On the Garden Foes forum Night_Bloom is also an Entomologist. I don't know if they visit this forum tho.
