Yesterday one of the chrysalis changed color in a way I hadn’t seen before. It didn’t quite match the images I’ve seen, but it wasn’t darkening evenly. Odder still, the “cap” portion was still bright green.
Given my recent scare with the malformed chrysalis, and being that I had a ready to go sick bay, I erred on the side of caution and moved it there. This was even easier to decide because it was one that had formed on a milkweed plant in the keeper, so it wasn’t hard at all to retape it to the sick bay lid.
I did make sure to put in lots of extra padding on the bottom before the usual paper towel to absorb excess fluid and easier clean up in general. The extra padding, in case you didn’t read the sad day update series, was a damage preventative should the chrysalis fall for any reason.
No joke, almost within the hour after I moved it, the coloration smoothed out over the entire chrysalis.
This morning, when I lifted the towel I use to cover all the monarchs at night so any artificial light doesn’t mess with their internal clocks, this is what I found:
We still have three chrysalises in the keeper, and I’m about to move at least two, but likely all three, of the remaining caterpillars in the incubator over to the keeper today. I’m hoping to the smallest instar is going to molt today so they are all about the same size.
I have not been looking for eggs as diligently as I was due to other commitments of late, but I have not found any other eggs when I have looked. I do hope I will find some more for the last wave of monarchs here before the adults start to head south.
