Nature that is pretty is also awesome!
This morning when I woke up, I thought to myself that if Albert doesn't come out of his chrysalis today, I was gonna chuck his obviously dead carcass off the deck. He's no good to me if he stays in his room forever. When I went to check on him, I was mightily pleased, for he was not the brown and tan color he was of the past week, but a definite black. And I could see that there was some air pockets between Albert and his former skin around the tip of his back end. And I saw him spasm a couple of times. 
For the next hour and a half, I watched the chrysalis. I saw only a couple twitches, so I thought he'd be a long time emerging. I decided to keep myself busy with wiping down a few counters. With back turned on Albert, I set to work. He must have been embarrassed while I was watching him because he came out when my back was turned. I swear I had only taken my eyes off him for 10 minutes! And this is what I found when I checked on him:
Crumpled wings and a desire to be upside down.
I let him climb on a spongy paintbrush
so he could air out his wings and get his butterfly blood pumping into them. I watched over him for the next hour. I woke the kids so they could see. All were interested (for about 5 minutes).
Here is the underside of Albert's wings:
Very pretty, no?
And here is Albert, just moments before he flew the coop.
He's off on his own now, hopefully looking for that special someone that will love him (for a few minutes) and, with him, populate the world with a few more Black Swallowtails.
PS. After a google search, I do believe that Albert should have been named Alberta. I hope she didn't take it personally that I couldn't tell that she was a girl.
For the next hour and a half, I watched the chrysalis. I saw only a couple twitches, so I thought he'd be a long time emerging. I decided to keep myself busy with wiping down a few counters. With back turned on Albert, I set to work. He must have been embarrassed while I was watching him because he came out when my back was turned. I swear I had only taken my eyes off him for 10 minutes! And this is what I found when I checked on him:
Crumpled wings and a desire to be upside down.I let him climb on a spongy paintbrush
so he could air out his wings and get his butterfly blood pumping into them. I watched over him for the next hour. I woke the kids so they could see. All were interested (for about 5 minutes).Here is the underside of Albert's wings:
Very pretty, no?And here is Albert, just moments before he flew the coop.
He's off on his own now, hopefully looking for that special someone that will love him (for a few minutes) and, with him, populate the world with a few more Black Swallowtails.
PS. After a google search, I do believe that Albert should have been named Alberta. I hope she didn't take it personally that I couldn't tell that she was a girl.
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