From spikes to wings

Remember how I told you we have a bunch of caterpillars "nesting" on our front porch? Well, many of them have emerged. (Some, sadly, never made it.)

But new ones are still arriving each week... seeking out nooks and crannies on our porch where they can comfortably hang upside down for a week or so... and now I've been very lucky enough to have witnessed two different species just moments after they emerged from their chrysalises!

They are both in the fritillary family.

The first one is a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia).

I watched the little guy change from a reddish-orange crawler with black spikes into a lovely green chrysalis with golden flecks... he didn't shed his skin or anything... just forced himself to change shape and color over the course of a day. Absolutely amazing.

Here he is when he had first chosen his spot (sorry for the poor focus)...

And here he is after he'd changed...

The picture is really dark, so here's a picture of another one to give you a better idea of the incredible color they have...

And finally... his chrysalis started getting dark and slightly translucent one morning. So I kept my eye on him each time I passed by the front window...

Later that day...

Voila! There he was!

As for the second one... although we've had close to 20 Gulf Fritillary caterpillars set up camp around our house, I hadn't caught any of them leaving their chrysalises.

But today was apparently my lucky day!!

I noticed this guy this morning when I stepped out to get the mail. He had already stretched into his new butterfly wings (they pump blood into their wings after they emerge to fully unfurl them) and was slowly flapping them in the sun to pick up some heat and to dry them out...

A minute or so later, he gave his wings a try and began to look for flowers in the field next to our house.

I'm really excited to have finally been able to see one of these guys after weeks and weeks of just seeing their crawling counterparts. And when I think about it, the whole process of their metamorphosis stuns me a bit. You have to admit it's quite remarkable the drastic changes they undergo in such a short period of time!

The weather's starting to get cooler here, so we will probably have to say farewell to these guys until the next generation returns next year... *sigh*

xxoo!

-h-