Fabio has Emerged!

Just 2 days ago, on a chilly September morning, our first caterpillar was reborn into a beautiful Monarch butterfly. We were so excited Tuesday morning when we awoke to see that the cocoon had turned transparent and the black, orange, and yellow fabric of Fabio was clearly visible. We waited with great anticipation, hoping to see the miracle of his rebirth.

For about 2 hours we constantly checked on Fabio. Here you can see Chase peering through the glass. This is homeschooling at it's best.


Fabio was clearly ready to emerge, but we had to be patient. Breaking loose of the confines of a cocoon is no easy task.


Look at the details. Fabio's face is smooshed down in the bottom and he's looking a bit precarious.


If you look closely at this picture, you will see that the cocoon has split. He remained this way for probably another 30 minutes. It seemed as if he still had a good amount of work to do, so I decided to jump in the shower.


When I returned, Fabio was totally out of the cocoon and flopping around on the bottom of the aquarium. A butterfly must hang upside down immediately after escaping the cocoon or death is almost certain. The wings are wrinkled and wet and they need to hang upside down in order for the wings to dry properly. Fortunately I was there to pick up our poor baby.


Notice the wings appear a bit floppy. We continued to hold him upside down.


Now you can see that his wings no longer look wrinkled or wet. This only took about 5 minutes which would explain the importance of being present when your butterflies emerge.


We gently nudged Fabio onto a stick to complete the drying process. Can you see his curly little "tongue"?


Isn't he beautiful? We're just so proud.


Fabio won't eat for the first 24 hours, so we had fun observing him all day. Then the next day we gave him a piece of watermelon. Check out his curly proboscis or "tongue".


He'll use that proboscis to suck up nectar and water.


What a beauty, eh? Amazing! Fabio is 2 days old now and later today we will take him to my folks house because my mom has a butterfly bush. He'll love it there.


As I write, we are waiting for our second butterfly to emerge which should be anytime now. Unfortunately she will not get the attention of our firstborn, (isn't that the way it always is?) because I am sitting in a coffee shop waiting for punk #2 to get her braces on. I left Amarillo in the capable hands of punk #3 who is supposed to call with news of Amarillo's arrival. And as is to be expected of any second born, poor Amarillo will not have pictures taken of her miraculous birth. Figures. (Can you tell I'm a second born?)

Oh and btw, some of the pictures are dimly lit because Fabio jumped anytime I used my flash and I didn't want to stress him. I like using natural light whenever possible, but in this case the room was fairly dim and even though we used a desk lamp, pictures taken in the evening just didn't have the best lighting. I need to solve this dilemma for Amarillo's photos.

Fabio has left the building. Here are some shots of our brave little Fabio encountering the great outdoors for the very first time as a brand new butterfly. I think Chase had a small dose of what it feels like to be a parent as he opened the jar and let his butterfly go free. He made statements like, "Do birds eat butterflies?", "What if he doesn't know how to fly yet?", "Maybe we should just keep him at home." Ahh...the joys of parenting.



Fabio knew just what to do when Chase placed him on the butterfly bush. His little tongue went straight to the sweet nectar and he took a big swig.



I think he looks quite happy.




Amarilla Makes Her Debut!

Not long after returning from saying goodbye to Fabio, Amarillo decided to come out of her cocoon. I had begun to get a bit worried when she didn't come out this morning, but she was fine and of course, she came out while I was helping one of the kids with their homework so we missed it again. I wish we could just sit and wait, but she looked ready to emerge at 8:00 this morning and didn't finally come out until about 3:00. I can't just sit around and wait for you crazy winged creatures....I've got things to do! The least you could do is give us some warning, but no, one minute you're in, the next you're out. Well, we have 2 more to go so maybe we'll get to see one emerge yet.

And here she is out of her cocoon and hanging just as she should be. Unlike Fabio who fell down, Amarilla clung to her old home for quite some time. You can see one of the other cocoons nearby.





Also unlike Fabio, Amarilla was quite active after hanging for less than an hour. She began to explore her surroundings. I think she's a bit spunkier than Fabio. Interesting to think that butterflies have personalities isn't it?



So there's another one of our beauties. And as should be expected, that's all the pictures we have of our poor neglected second born.