I had been waiting for about 4 days for this to happen - very scared that she did not make it as it should not generally take 4 days for the butterfly to emerge from a transparent Chrysalis.
However, she arrived and was glorious. I can confirm that indeed "she" is a Cleopatra as she did not have the extra sacks in her wings (an enlarged area in the lower wings denoting the butterfly to be male).
I had the food prepped for her which consisted of : the 20% honey solution as well as a cut plum, an orange slice and a banana (yuck I don't like bananas so I must really like these Monarchs!). She took a sip of the orange and that pleased me as that confirmed that her proboscis worked (how butterflies eat is by extending their proboscis into the food source and sipping).
I have some beautiful pictures of her including one on my hand. Yes, indeed she crawled across my hand which again was pleasing. Her tiny feet kinda prickle as they walk, but those are the "hairs" that give her grip.
It came the time to let her go when I felt that her wings were stale and dried up enough as she did fly in the mesh basket I had over top of her.
Seeing her go today made me feel exuberate, yet I will admit there is that twinge of sadness seeing a creature go that you raised. I worry about how far she will make it out there.
Here are some pics:
Cleopatra at about 2 hours old - below
No comments:
Post a Comment