 |
| Remember this guy? and his cream, silver, bronze and black chrysalis with a body shield? |
 |
| On Friday (one day over three weeks after becoming a chrysalis) he turned black and started whapping his abdomen around in the morning... |
 |
| And while I was on the phone with my Mom, he turned into this! Note the fluid expelled on arrival. My Dad-in-law has half of a PhD in bug and butterflies and he tells me that when the butterfly first comes out, it's wings are only the size of the chrysalis. Then the butterfly pumps fluid through the veins and the wings fill out and become the size you'll see in the next photos. It only takes about 5 minutes, and I missed it. |
 |
| Just an old leaf hanging there- color coded for the season. |
 |
| Climbing out to meet the world |
 |
| Wing shots |
 |
| Wing shots |
 |
| It was hard to get a picture of the sun behind the wings because he kept turning so that the sun directly laid on his wings and I couldn't take the picture straight into the sun. |
 |
| Great camouflage |
 |
| I kept thinking he was about to fly, but it took hours. I call this guy 'he' because my Dad-in-law said, at least for Monarchs (this is a Fritillary) you can tell the males by a tiny scent gland on a certain vein of the wings. I saw something similar on this one. |
 |
| He finally flew from my finger, up over the roof and off into the big blue sky! |
