Still waiting...

We have 3 swallowtail chrysalides now. On Sunday morning, day 6, we noticed the first chrysalis had turned dark brown. Was it getting ready to emerge? Well here we are, at the end of day 8, and the chrysalis is still the same. I finally found a site that said it takes 9-11 days, which is just a little bit shorter than the monarch. We are going up North tomorrow for 24 hours. Do I risk taking it with us? I will keep you posted...

Miss Piggy

Yesterday morning, Miss Piggy the monarch, emerged from her chrysalis. She was very attached to me and spent most of the evening and this morning sitting on me. The baby released her first butterfly when she let Miss Piggy fly outside this afternoon. Only one more chrysalis to go - and this one is smaller than most. Could the caterpillar have quit after the 4th instar and formed the chrysalis? Email me if you have seen any research on this topic.

3 Swallowtails in stages

The first of our swallowtails has formed his chrysalis. We noticed it this afternoon. A second caterpillar attached himself to the side of the jar late last night and has yet to change. I will post more info once the chrysalis forms.

The Butterfly Farm

We are already approaching the 3rd generation of monarchs here in the south metro. We have a few stragglers finishing this generation with 2 caterpillars and 2 chrysalises. We expect one monarch to be born tomorrow - the bigger of the two.
Other creatures who have taken up residence:

Our American Tree Frog, Kermy, does not want to leave the nest. I finally brought him in for the evening after he spent the day hopping back and forth between the open aquarium and the bushes. He likes being served his spiders instead of trying to hunt them down...

Sylvester, the snake, was discovered in the woodpile today by Papa and his student helper. He is still waiting in the bucket until he can be identified. I want to keep him until I can buy a mouse to feed him. I think that would be fun to watch...for research purposes, of course...