Monday, August 7, 2017

one hatched...

... but not while I was paying attention, so I missed seeing the butterfly come out of the tidy little house it made on the parsley plant. I noticed yesterday that one of the two chrysalis had come open. Looked like a paper thin little scrap, sort of tube-shaped with a small hole on one end where the new creation escaped the confines of the temporary shelter. You can see the two tiny filaments that hold the little sack to the twig of the parsley (leafless as they devoured all the leaves on the plant.)

It is so interesting to look at. I've seen empty cocoons over the years, found on the ground, with a small aperture in one end, where the hatchling came out. They sort of look like felt, a non-woven type of cloth, but appear to be made of some fiber, which could easily just be webbing wound round and round and round, as in rolling a skein of yarn into a ball. But the thing here, on the parsley twig, gives the appearance of a husk, thin like tissue paper, but does not look like fiber as does other cocoons found in the woods.

The second one, that is still intact, seems to be lighter in color than it was originally when first noticed. And might be thinner, with the tissue-like covering not as thick as it was when the caterpillar first made it. I noticed them at the same time, when there were still fat, yellow and black striped worms on the plant, industriously munching along. I am guessing that in the next day or so the chrysalis not yet hatched will produce another butterfly.  Hopefully I will witness the birth.

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