Freshly Emerged Butterfly

[Junebug]

This morning, by chance, something caught my eye just after I finished watering the chids. After turning off the faucet I passed by my ugly blue plastic rain water reservoir that was sitting nearby. Hanging from it's side was a beautiful Gulf Frutillary Butterfly. It was sitting perfectly still with it's wings closed and at first I thought it was dying. As I moved in for a closer look I noticed that the butterfly was alive, and that it was emerging from it's still attached cocoon. After recognizing what was going on I ran indoors and fetched the camera. It's too bad that I had to be at work and couldn't stay and watch her wings fully open and witness her first flight.

This was something special for me to witness and I thought I'd share. Enjoy!