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!

[WhiteRabbit]

awesome! my poor passion flower vine was decimated by these guys last fall - but it's coming back now - I love butterflies, so didn't want to "get rid" of the caterpillars despite them eating every last leaf on the plant lol

I saw some of the caterpillars pupate, but missed seeing the butterflies emerge

thanks for posting these pix - they're really cool!

[Becca]

wow that is so cool!

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

awesome! my poor passion flower vine was decimated by these guys last fall - but it's coming back now - I love butterflies, so didn't want to "get rid" of the caterpillars despite them eating every last leaf on the plant lol

I saw some of the caterpillars pupate, but missed seeing the butterflies emerge

thanks for posting these pix - they're really cool!

Thank you.

I found a way to get around the caterpillars when growing passifloras. My solution was to place a bird feeder and bird bath near to where the vine was growing. The birds responded to the invite. While they were there they noticed the caterpillars and feasted on them too. This method worked really well and eradicated about 98% of the caterpillars.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Or you can grow a tomato vine and put them amongst the tomatoes. They love tomatoes.

[nenella]

Cool pics! thanks for posting

[Lilly B]

Amazing photos. It is too bad that work gets in the way of such beauty. Thanks for sharing.

[Eyebabe]

Great close ups! I think their compound eyes are mad cool!

[merkity]

it is really neat to see the butterflies just emerging. We had a very large passion vine that the butterflies found last year. My daughter had just started seeing those butterfly habitats on tv and begun asking for one. We soon noticed the big black and red spiky caterpillars in the passion vine - and the butterflies hanging around. it was great to see - in the mid morning the butterflies would come out and fly all around the backyard - and we had chrysalis's everywhere - the vine was so big that it easily supported the butterflies, grew under our lawn across the yard, up the tree on the other side and cascaded down the lower branches of the tree...

[Junebug]

My thanks to everyone for the nice comments.

I was fortunate enough to observe the entire metamorphasis as a child. It began when my mother noticed my fascination with a hairy black worm I'd been playing with. She explained to me that one day it would turn into a butterfly. I decided to keep the worm in a ventilated popsicle box I had made at day camp. It had a removable lid which made for easy access at feeding and play time.

Eventually I witnessed the caterpillar constructing his cocoon, mostly from his own hair appendages. It was fascinating to watch the changing appearance of the cocoon during the process of pupation. It was kind of freaky to see it periodically wriggling with life. On the final day, I opened the box at the early stage of emergence and I was captivated by the entire process. The butterfly was wet and gooey when he finally emerged. Then he sat still, like the one in the photo, allowing himself to dry. Ever so often he'd open his wings, a little at first, and then more as the moisture evaporated. Once dried, he repeated a few minutes of full wing extensions, and then he flew away. It was awesome.