I raised dozens of Monarch Butterfly caterpillars to the point that they could be released in 2023. Honestly, the one stage of the metamorphosis that, to me, was the most mind blowing wasn’t the typical scene of when the fully-formed and very beautiful butterfly emerges from the chrysalis (called “eclosing”). It’s how the caterpillar creates the gorgeous bright green (with gold) chrysalis. It only takes about 4 minutes from start to finish once they hang upside down in the J position. They continue to wiggle and get comfy for about an hour or so afterwards, which is super neat, but this really was NOT how I thought it was going to go down the first time I saw it happen. I guess I imagined it happened in reverse, with the caterpillar spinning the chrysalis, or something like that. I can say with complete certainty that whatever I thought was going to happen is definitely NOT what actually happens, to put it mildly.

Essentially, the “skin” or costume of the caterpillar is what makes it look like it has black stripes. It’s just a “suit” though. Below is a photo of the last thing that this little cutie shrugged off – you can see that it is black (which is why the caterpillars look like they are striped) and clear “cellophane” which gives them the illusion of what we think a Monarch Butterfly caterpillar looks like (but its an optical illusion):

Underneath the cellophane-like casing, the little caterpillar is bright green like the milkweed it consumes. It’s all about camouflage.

Even some of its legs aren’t real. They’re fake. And the thing it wriggles out of (at the end of the 4 minutes) is shrugged off and falls to the ground and looks exactly like an insect, but even that is a ruse to throw off predators. Once the caterpillar decides where it will make its chrysalis, it is extremely vulnerable to predators while it forms into its butterfly persona. This is why fostering the caterpillars in your home or other safe place (until they are ready to be released into the wild) is so important. And fun. And very serious business.

I took this video (below) at my house in late September 2023 (with an iPhone).

It’s in real time.

And this (below) is a photo of a chrysalis after it’s formed/created. This isn’t what it looks like immediately after the process (above). It takes several days to look like this, but you can eventually even see the wings through the chrysalis, and they actually “breathe” through the gold dots. The chrysalis starts out opaque and bright green, but becomes increasingly “clear” as they get closer to eclosing (emerging).

You can even learn to tell the gender of the (future) Monarch Butterfly by studying the top of the chrysalis. It takes practice.