Chrysalis Formation
I took some video of a monarch caterpillar’s chrysalis forming today. The caterpillar had spun its silk button and attached itself to the underside of a milkweed leaf — not the ideal spot, as the leaf will dry out, or another caterpillar may decide to eat it. After the chrysalis was finished we removed the leaf and positioned it in a safer, more stable spot.
This video is of the first five minutes or so, as the caterpillar’s old skin is pushed off. It takes another 45 minutes or longer for the chrysalis to be completely finished, but it’s in these first eventful five minutes that the process is visible. It’s fascinating to watch, though not at all comfortable for the caterpillar, from the looks of it; transformation is definitely not a passive thing. I’m always amazed at the strength of the silk button, too, which looks so gossamer but withstands so much twisting and turning.
Often when something grand is going on, there’s an indifferent bystander, and in this case it’s another caterpillar, munching relentlessly in the left foreground…
4 Comments
Barbara H.
Wow. That’s amazing. Thanks for sharing that! It definitely looks uncomfortable.
I was thinking, if this was a documentary, what kind of music should be put with it — soft and ethereal or big and triumphant. :-) Maybe the latter would be reserved for the other end of the process when he comes out.
Do you know — I heard an illustration a while back, I think about a man who saw a butterfly coming from its chrysalis and seeming to be stuck, so he tried to help it by making the opening bigger, and it died. The illustration was made that some struggle is a part of life, strengthens us, and accomplishes things in our lives that wouldn’t happen without the struggle. But do you know if that’s true, that if you do something like that it actually interferes with the process? I was thinking of that as I watched this one struggling to get out of the last bit of its skin, and it seems the last bit was the hardest — there is a temptation to help pull away the old skin, but that probably wouldn’t be wise.
Janet
I haven’t read anything that says specifically that interrupting the process hurts the butterfly. But I know that it has to pump blood into its wings before it’s able to fly, so it makes sense that the exertion of working its way out would help with that.
I’ve wondered something similar — whether raising the caterpillars inside, insulated from cold or rain, might make them less tough.
Isn’t it great, the things watching the process makes you think about?
Amy @ Hope Is the Word
Thanks so much for sharing the video, Janet. My girls and I watched it, amazed. :-)
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