When a caterpillar is full grown it usually leaves the milkweed plant it has been feeding on voraciously and crawls until it can find a safe place to pupate. When it finds just the right spot, it makes a silk-like mat and then attaches its last pair of legs to the mat. Allowing its' body to drop, it hangs there upside down in a J-shape for about one full day. As it passes from the larval (catepillar) stage to the pupa (Chrysalis) stage, it sheds its' skin one more time. Under the catepillar's skin is a jade green casing which is called a chrysalis. Inside this green casing, a true miracle of nature will happen - the catepillar will turn into a beautiful Monarch butterfly. This process will take 9 to 14 days. We found this beautiful chrysalis in one of our prairie plantings this morning. The catepillar has attached itself to a beautiful Prairie Dock leaf. Prairie Dock is in the Silphium family and is one of the largest of the native prairie species. The flowering stalk grows to over 10 feet tall and the roots of a Prairie Dock plant can reach 15 feet into the ground. We will be keeping an eye on the chrysalis to see if we can possibly watch the brand new butterfly emerge. Because the wings are tiny, crumpled and wet when the butterfly emerges, it must sit and wait for the wings to "harden". This will take about an hour. The chrysalis will often split open early in the morning - let's hope we can capture it on film!
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