13 day journey of cacoon to butterfly

Cacoon is at the top of the jar hooked onto the stick by maybe the caterpillars antenna??

The opaque cacoon is between IT's antennas.

Another picture of the Cacoon IT lived in for 13 days.

BEAUTIFUL monarch butterfly.

Oh dear these are 50 year old hands....SIGH...but look at the beautiful butterfly!

Look at a miracle of nature..Perfect artistry.

My SIL Becky brought several cacoons down so we could share in watching the rest of the process..She had found the catterpillars on some milkweed and I believe she watched one form the cacoon..

Two made the car trip to the farm from wisconsin.

Cheri took one to Iowa where that one turned into a butterfly while they were gone for the day.

But ours............ was soooooo AWESOME to be able to see it HAPPEN.

On day 13 of being in a cacoon IT worked it's way out into this world. I had noticed the eve. before that the cacoon was a dull color green now from a bright green and I could see some black and orange off the wing. The next morning the cacoon was a dull grayish color with more vivid showing of the black and orange and white of the monarch. A few hours later the bottom of the cacoon kind of fell apart and IT was attached to the cacoon still and would turn one way and then the other over a few hours..his legs slowly coming out of the cacoon..I could not imagine such a small cacoon for such a large butterfly.

The cacoon by the time IT was out was just an opaque color.

We turned IT loose in my flowers and sometime after an hour IT took flight. I wonder if this was the hatching that heads south to Mexico? Seems there are 4 hatchings a year and the last hatching heads SOUTH.

Speaking of being born and knowing to head SOUTH for the winter...amazes me....

I would love to head SOUTH for a small portion of winter.