Home Grown

I had no idea they turn translucent like this, Lucy. Amazing look at the monarchs ready to emerge.

You can see the seams that split open in this photo. The seams border the long, thin triangle. As the butterfly wriggles around, the triangle pops away from the main chrysalis. Then folded, wet wings appear and the fellow pulls out of his old home. The monarchs actually look deformed just after emerging, as their wet wings are curled and stuck together like rumpled sheets. As they dry out, their handsome wings unfold and stiffen into their final position.
Pretty darned cool!

You can see the seams that split open in this photo. The seams border the long, thin triangle. As the butterfly wriggles around, the triangle pops away from the main chrysalis. Then folded, wet wings appear and the fellow pulls out of his old home. The monarchs actually look deformed just after emerging, as their wet wings are curled and stuck together like rumpled sheets. As they dry out, their handsome wings unfold and stiffen into their final position.
Pretty darned cool!

Great interest and description of the chrysalis, I've never seen one in the 'flesh' so to speak.
Thought of buying them online to photograph, but never followed through..
I see the panel now as it emerges, nice work Lucy

Lucy: If you get a chance to witness this again note how fat the body is when it emerges. Fluid to inflate the wings is stored there and pumped into the wing veins. We had over 500 monarchs on our milkweed one summer several years ago and I got to watch this marvelous process many times. I like how the chrysalises are arranged and the BG. Pretty nice lighting as well. 2 thumbs up. >=))>

I did notice how fat the monarch's body was, but I thought it was an optical illusion....I just assumed, that it just looked big, because the wings had not unfolded. Thanks for the info....really interesting!