View From Casita Colibrí

Back on January 10th, I posted a photo of a pupa that had materialized on my plumbago while I’d been up in the USA for a month.
What I haven’t mentioned is that the next day, it moved!  It began traveling up and down the plumbago.  I ran inside, grabbed my new Canon G12, set it to video, and began recording.  Video was edited, music was added, and the following resulted:

However, that isn’t the end of the story.  I kept close tabs on the terrace’s new resident, checking daily, but no more plumbago strolling; the pupa remained firmly fastened to one of the branches.

Then on April 17th, over 3 months later, I noticed a significant change in the pupa…

A butt protruding?  Was a butterfly in the process of emerging???  Daily observations continued… no change.  I returned to the USA for a month, returned to find… NO change!

Finally, on July 2nd, I couldn’t stand it any longer.  With the Skype encouragement from my friend G, I snipped the pupa from its home of almost six months and began a dissection;  the industrial strength silk was peeled away and the woody chrysalis was cut into with my gardening shears… a hollow shell of the “butt end” and an empty cottony interior was revealed!

The butterfly had flown…

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