One of Nature’s Miracles.

Todays was one of those days when I had planned to do so much, instead I ended by watching one of nature’s most intriguing miracles.
On our walk yesterday we collected a couple of the fully grown small tortoiseshell butterfly caterpillars. They had begun to wander away from the nettles so we guessed they would soon pupate. I put them in an insect cage along with some nettles and other foliage. By bedtime they were both upside down, one along a branch the other along the plastic top of the cage.

This morning both caterpillars were hanging down attached by silk threads. I managed to get the plant, on which one of them was attached, out without disturbing the other. I set up a suitable background and the cameras took a few shots, watched and waited took a few shots …… and so the day progressed. How long I wondered? Googled mnnn one source said a couple of days ah well, and how long to actually pupate… 5 minutes or so. Well I couldn’t watch them all the time, we’ll see.
Its surprising how much they moved about just gentle squirms and slight wriggles but enough to mean slow shutter speeds were not an option. As the day progressed they hung straighter and the movements became more ripples concertinaing down the body. Would it be long?

We had dinner, the light was going, the sun would be setting in an hour. I must get the LED light out. I looked at the one attached to the top of the cage….. was it….. yes it was, grabbed the camera but light very poor, my goodness it happening faster than I thought. It took just about 3 minutes for the first one to pupate and with some amazingly fast twists and spins completely shed its skin.

Put the LED on a tripod , camera at the ready….. I had half an hour to wait and then the miracle unfolded. The skin parted just behind and below the head. A few wriggles and twists and about 4 minutes later the chrysalis was free of the skin but despite many twists and spins the discarded skin stayed attached to the silk.

(Its taken me a while to sort the photos and I hope to put some more on flikr tomorrow)