I have 2 black and 9 green monarch Chrysilis's now. I am worried that some of them may be sick. I can see wings in most of them. But some show wings and what looks like mushy stuff? I have no idea what's happening. I would like to get a good closeup but I don't have a good camera yet.
None of the chrysalis's are in cages with cats and had been wiped with antibacterial stuff before I put them in, all have excellent ventilation.
Can anybody tell me what to expect from the chrysalis stage? Any pics would be good too. I'm gonna search google, but people here are better!
Also, please correct my spellings of chrysalis, especially the plural.
thanks,
Maureen
Black Chrysalis how long; & what does a sick one look like?
if you are seeing wings they will emerge in a day or two. Some here have made comments about a virus or something affecting their Monarch cats. Someone will post more info for you
Well, after reading at this site: http://www.monarchparasites.org/ I am starting to think I have OE in some of them. Now I am thinking I need to isolate some of the Chrysalis' .
Thanks Donna, I'd love to hear from someone who may have had expreiences with this, I hope it will help someone else trying to rear monarchs too.
Maureen
I took the chrysalis out and it was oozing brown stuff, I'm sure it's dead.
Before I got to do that though it's neighbor emerged, my first butterfly. I only hope it's normal, it grew up in the same cage. I only count 4 legs on it while it was walking around flapping its wings.
Here she is:
This is a pic of a chrysalis, it has 6 black dots in rows at it's top. Is this normal? I hope I haven't done something bad to all these butterflies.
Here's a monarch cat I believe is sick. He is more black than any other color, and was convulsing. His roomate died already, but fortunately they had been in their own container the whole time.
I'm posting all these so that maybe somebody can teach me something and maybe someone else can learn also.
Maureen
mlm - I must say I have never heard of this cat sickness - so this IS a learning experience for me.
The monarchs are a "brushfoot" butterfly - all of the brushfooted butterflies appear to only have 4 legs b/c there are two legs that are really short in front that have hairs on them they use to clean their eyes and antennae (Jeannie K. Fulbright).
Well, I now have two butterflys, one of the chrysalids that turned black yesterday emerged this morning.
The one that was black for a long time actually turned brownish. I removed it whith a thread per these instructions: http://www.monarchwatch.org/rear/index.htm (scroll down to "The Pupa (Chrysalis)") and it really oozed the brown stuff. Per these instructions: http://www.livemonarch.com/advanced.htm (scroll down to "Butterfly did not emerge ") I got rid of the chrysalis.
Just fyi,
Maureen
edited to make sense
This message was edited Sep 8, 2006 11:59 AM
Well...at least some are eclosing fine. I've occassionally had one or two over the last few years that died in the chrysalis. Not long ago tho I had all of one batch (not sure if they were actually the same brood tho) die. I posted and asked a professional, so here is a link to that thread - for more learning purposes: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/642251/
The cat being more black (as in stripes) is ok. They can vary in color and size of stripes. I see it happen more often in the fall broods. The Black Swallowtails will be almost orange/black/white instead of green/yellow/black. Must be Halloween colors! lol
I'm not sure about the convulsing tho. Sometimes they shake when they are startled. They are really funny when they do this! If you start talking beside them and they are still they will start bobbing their heads! I can't resist making them dance a little. ;) Real convulsions obviously aren't good tho. What happened to this one?
Thanks for the link to your thread. Looking at the monarch chrysalides you removed the one that looks more brown looks like the one I flushed yesterday, only mine was oozing brown stuff (yuk).
Mr. Hill mentioned OE which I was also concerned about. However, I think maybe something in the cage, like bacteria may have gotten to this one as a caterpillar. Anyway there is apparently a kit to let you test for OE at monarchwatch.org, when I find it I’ll post the link.
When I say the one cat was convulsing, I mean his head was jerking up repeatedly for several seconds a few times. He is still eating however. I have him isolated because his cellmate did die already so we'll see what happens.
Today I have 4 butterflies....they emerge fast! The rest of the chrysalids look ok to me now. My biggest problem now is I'm afraid I'll either run out of milkweed leaves or kill my a. incarnata from pulling leaves.
Speaking of BSTs and halloween, I have one BST cat which came on some fennel I bought and intend to plant for butterfly purposes. At least I think he's a bst. He shot his "orange horn thing" out at me when I moved him to a safer spot once--very halloweeny! Here he is:
To anyone interested, the cat pictured 5 posts up, the "black cat" who was convulsing, died. He had been eating fine and then he was just all black and shriveled up in the cage. I couldn't get a good pic of him though. So, I assume that these two had some kind of infection. I guess that's one advantage to having them in a bunch of small buckets, they were isolated.
Another Chrysalis formed yesterday with big black sploches on the side. It is also isolated, as is his roomate. If I can get a decent pic I'll post it.
Bad news is, my BST cat escaped--I hope he found a place to pupate safely, but I can't find him anywhere.
Maureen
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that Maureen. I guess he was having true convulsions. Poor baby. But I don't think that had anything to do with his coloring. That's just my novice opinion since colors do vary.
I'm happy to report that after cleaning my cage that all of mine are eclosing big and beautiful. I still don't know whether it had anything to do with the cage but I'm happy.
When they shoot their osmeteria at you (orange horns) they think they are being really scary. lol I refer to it as them "stinking" me. Did you catch a whiff of it? yuck! Once they get used to you they won't keep doing it to you.
ROFL...I didn't smell anything but he did look like he was being tough, lol. I hope he found a place to make his changes, but my patio is visited by several wrens each morning looking for bugs. I'm so dissappointed I may buy some BST larvae if I can find a good source.
I also feel sorry for the one who just died. especially when he convulsed, it didn't look good. I hope he didn't suffer.
Congrats on your healthy encloses! I hope the problem stays fixed, whatever it was.
Maureen