This butterfly is just a few hours away from coming out of her chrysalis. As you can see, the chrysalis has gone from being bright green to being almost transparent, and you can see the wings of the butterfly all curled up inside.
Here's another view, where you can see where the wings come together - this will be the butterfly's back.
And here she is, a few hours after breaking out of the chrysalis (the technical word for this is "eclosing")!
When she broke her way out of the chrysalis, her wings were still all soft and wrinkled up. Over a few hours, she pumped fluid into a network of tiny tubes within the wings. Once the wings were pumped up, they hardened and became flat like you can see in the picture.
A few hours after this picture was taken, she flew away. Maybe she'll come back and visit Archie's Garden again!
(click on pictures to enlarge)
No comments:
Post a Comment