There are signs before a Monarch caterpillar becomes a chrysalis if you know what to look for. Observation, awareness and curiosity led me to find those signs and then allowing myself the time to record this moment. So many times since I began seeing a caterpillar go through it’s metamorphosis I missed it because my timing was off. I would watch, go away, come back and the transformation would have happened. When a caterpillar is getting ready it becomes restless, stops eating and starts climbing all over the place until it finds a spot somewhere at the top of something. In this case the top of the butterfly habitat. There it weaves for a while a fine thread, something like a web, to give itself something to hang from. Then it hangs from the thread in a “j” . It can stay like this for a few days with it’s antenna hanging down but not limp. About six hours before it starts to shed it’s exoskeleton the antenna take on the form of twisted ribbons. Now watch what happens next….click on blue title” caterpillar to chyrsalis” at the top of this post.
I hope this video awakens in you awe and wonder as it did me. Please add comments and questions if you like.
The music is by 1.Christopher Parkening: Passacaglia for Lute, 2. Monastery Bells(St. Paisios Monastery) and 3. Ditty Bops: Interlude for 10 Strings.
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