birth of a butterfly

Early this past Saturday morning, I went outside to check on our Black Swallowtail chrysalis. Now, this chrysalis is not the same chrysalis that we've written about in our previous posts. This particular chrysalis arrived on a butterfly plant that we bought just a few days earlier. Jack noticed the chrysalis after we bought it and just before he planted it. Anyway, on Friday night we noticed that the chrysalis was changing. It was becoming transparent. So, we knew the butterflies birth was not far away and we keep checking on it well into the night. Then, as I mentioned, early Saturday morning I went to check on it and found that it was even more transparent... It was still dark out when I took this picture, but not fifteen minutes later the sun was rising and the chrysalis was transforming even more... ~you can clearly see a black shape inside the chrysalis. You can also see the yellow dots that decorate it's wings and body. Amazing, isn't it? Unfortunately, I couldn't stay outside to watch the birth process because we had plans to spend the day in Waco, Texas and I had to get ready to go. What a disappointment! But, about thirty minutes or so after taking the last picture of the chrysalis, I went outside to check on it and this is what I found... ~It was already out of it's chrysalis and was drying its wings in preparation of flight!!! You can see the black swallowtail and it's empty chrysalis in this picture. Here are a few other pictures I took before it flew off...

Just beautiful!! Jack and I watched it for about twenty minutes and just as we both looked away (Jack was showing me a white butterfly and a lady bug in our garden) it flew away. We missed it fly away, just as we missed it emerging from the chrysalis! But, I am thankful that we at least got to see it after it emerged and before it flew away! We wished it a good happy 18 days (or something like that) of life and that was that. THEN, two days later Jack called me to the window looking out to our patio and there was a big black swallowtail butterfly laying eggs on our dill plant! I was amazed and SO happy! We let the butterfly have it's peace and once it left, we ran out to see! Here's what we found...

~Tiny little butterfly eggs!!!

So, the cycle starts all over again!

As for the other chrysalis (the one we've been writing about since we found it on the dill plant) it is almost ready! It has become transparent and you can see the black shape inside. I have walked outside many times this morning to check on it. I really don't want to miss the birth of this one! But, it's a rainy morning here and I'm not sure if it will emerge today since they have to have dry wings in order to fly off. I'll be keeping my eye on it as much as I can. I'm really excited and I hope that this time will get some pictures of it's birth and will be able to share here. Happy Thursday!