Three of these did their thing on newspaper in the bottom of the cage. Stick was available. #4 is on the top of cage.
Only one I am familiar with is a monarch. Does it look OK to you? Do I need to do anything special___someone mentioned misting them___or just wait it out?
How can I tell the male from female? if it should hatch? Thanks butterfly friends. Jean
It does look like a Swallowtail chrysalis, not sure which one. I'm surprised it's not hanging, that could pose a problem when it ecloses.
I've never misted but we have high humidity all the time, maybe someone else can help you on that one.
Maybe post a pic after it emerges and we can help you dtermine if it's a male or female.
Good luck Jam, hope it's a healthy beauty!
So it just morphed right there on the ground? That is odd. Don't have a clue how that is going to work but I hope everything turns out okay.
Leslie
If you want to try to suspend it, put a small dot of hot glue on a scrap of paper, letting it almost dry and touch it with your finger to make sure it isn't HO; then place the pointed end of the chrysalis to it. You can then pin the paper up inside the cage to hold it.
Frostweed explains the process in this article. http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/97/
Great spot Sheila_ explains a lot of things I was wondering. I cut a square of newspaper behind each that they were attached to and pinned it to the top of my cage. Thanks. Jean
Sorry Jam, I misread, you already know it's a swallowtail...that speed reading problem I have.
Sheila, that is a great link of Josephine's!
I am always so afraid of gluing that chrysalis...good luck Jam!
The ST chrysalids that I have...the pointy end is down, not sure if it makes a difference but I think the head splits the wider end first.
Yes Fly, you are right. But if you stick it into the glue at an angle and then pin the paper flat against the cage, it would mimic the natural position hopefully. But just what a natural position is, may not be so clear. LOL! These two silly BSTs double stacked on me. Loads of room in the cages and they did this. Had me worried at first but the first (darker) eclosed just fine, because like you said Fly they emerge from the head or large end.
As I was finding that pic to post, I had an idea. You could make a small harness or loop of netting and pin it up. As long as the large end was a wee bit outside the edge it would work, and that would avoid the whole glue thing (which makes me nervous too).
That is strange Sheila, those two so close together. I like the harness idea, avoiding the glue altogether.
So, Sheila, those two are horizontal?
Yes, they climbed up to a horizonal post at the top of the cage. The second one was there early one morning before I went to work but hadn't did the comma thing just yet. I took something and pushed his fanny and he moved off onto the bar, but when I got home, he had gone back and was already in the comma position so I just hoped for the best. They both eclosed just fine.
OK, here's part of the result. Pupa to the left did it's thing hortizonal at the top on it's own. The other two were on the newspaper in the bottom so I cut a piece of the paper and pinned it up top. The silk thread on one looked very weak; wasn't sure it would take hanging. So I glued (reg. Elmers) a small piece of paper over the weak looking silk thread and then after it dried pinned it up.
Guess after the vivid green color of the monarch cacoon I was concerned about the lack of interesting color on these 3 swallowtail. I notice in Sheila's post above the photo again has a lot more color. Hope all is well in there. These are my first swallowtail and I can hardly wait.
Jean, you have done a wonderful job of supporting them. The two look like very viaible chrysalis, the lower right one looks a bit distorted, but could be the angle. You have done the best you could do and it is time to wait now. Don't worry about the color, some are dark brown, some tan, and some bright green. As for misting, once a week is plenty I have found.
I now use the Glad containers with dense netting for the individual cats now. Using the wet foam and cover it with press n seal. I find that most will pupate on the stick also. (I wash the sticks and microwave for 30 sec. to kill bad stuff.) I pierce the plastic and insert the Parsley, changing and cleaning the container each day. Then when they are ready to eclose I move them into a large cage. I found doing it this way, I could control the mess eaiser as I couldn't wash the big cage when I had other chrysalis in different stages of development.
Never thought about bad stuff on the stick. Good idea.
I purchased a small plastic container, but had real trouble trying to cut out a hole in the lid. What did you use for cutting?
Will the swallowtail follow about the same time schedule as the monarch? Mine left the larva stage last Thursday.
I have mine inside and they eclose about 10-12 days after they go into the comma position. As for the lid, I just used scissors, and I am now just putting a dot of glue in the four corners to help get the netting in place. It was a pain to glue the whole thing and took too much time getting it on loose.
Oh, I also take the sticks out and put tags on them as to when they started to pupate, helps with rotation.
Are those both swallowtails? How different in color they look!!
I didn't open that link to read the tags until now. The darker one is a GST Great Swallowtail. But a lot of my STs are dark also. Most of the green ones had a lot of parsley around them when they turned, could be a camo technique.
One of my books said if the surface is smooth it will be green and if it's rough it will be brown. But, looks like that may not always hold true.
Great setup Jam! It looks like they are all secure.
fly_girl, you have mail!!
Yes Rox,
Mine have been both colors on all surfaces. Particularly tellable when using gladwares. Same plastic surface, yet some are green, and some brownish. Both colors on parsley branches too.. I don't know what the difference is, I've been looking for any distinction with one or the other color, and so far there is no pattern. Both colors are good, fully formed is the main thing.
I do think it is the angle on the lower right one Sheila.. I've seen that angle.
I love the double decker!!
They look beautiful Jean!:-S Very nice job! Great thread too!
And as far a tieing them up.. I have put swallowtails and gulf fritillaries on the bottom of the cage on a dry paper towel before, and they had no problem as long as they can climb up something. If a person has any quams about tieing them up, it's better to lay them on the bottom of the cage, than to dammage or drop them. The struggle seems to strengthen them even more. The only time there would be a problem is if they don't have the side or top of something to climb up on within the first 2 minutes of eclosing. The absorbant paper towlel is the trick to prevent that. In the wild they get knocked off limbs a lot bc of rain or wind etc. They still open well from the ground from what I've seen.
Love the article on tieing them Josephine! It is excellent. Also the neat little eclosing cage with them all lined up in there.. :-) Great information and inspiration.
Monarchs are the easiest to retie to a new location, just keep something soft underneath the operation at all times. If they fall far on a hard surface the chrysalis will pop open. They are the most fragile of all for me so far.
Debnes
Well, guess what?? This am I checked on one of my monarch cats that had been hanging in a J and within about 10 minutes it enclosed??? pupated?? No, it formed it's chrysalis. I'll figure this all out eventually. Such swinging and gyrations it went through!! Here he is about half through the process.
So glad you got to watch!
LOL on the terms Jam!
Well he finished up and about a half hour later I checked and he had fallen off the top. I'm not surprised after all the spinning and twisting it went through.
So I next got to do the dental floss trick and after attaching to the black part of the top, pinned him back to the top!! Boy, did this one poor little fellow offer a lot of activity!!
But his fall must have been harmful; there's a little spot of black oozing out the side of the crysalis___bummer. Oh well, I tried and will be smarter next time. Jean
Awwh so sad. You will have better results next time.
I guess that is another good reason to use the small plasticware, ..not as far to fall.
Know how ya feel ((Jean)). Even one that morphs and stays connected needs to dry well before moving it at all. They harden in a couple days are able to be move and tied up successfully. I attempted to move one that hadn;t dried good and it slipped out of my hands and fell about 2 foot down on the wood deck. Gave me the most aweful yuck feeling for a bit.
Debnes
But you put that behind you and moved on to help so many others Deb.
Yep Sheila & thx :-),
It's still so easy to relate to the loss of just one, but we do move on very quickly. If just a few survive that's more than would be. If more all the better. Fortunatly I have had about a 90% survival rate.
Debnes
