Finding Nemo

Another first has happened in our grand Monarch menagerie...we finally saw one of our butterflies come out of his cocoon and I've got the pictures to prove it. We knew the butterfly would come out at some point today because the cocoon was transparent, so we were on the lookout. Chase sat right next to the aquarium to do his math work and keep watch. After a while we noticed the cocoon had split and as I looked closer I realized he was pushing his way out. I called the girls and here's what we saw. (Please excuse the dirty aquarium. The spots are from all the misting we did to keep the humidity in the tank.)

Look at the perfect tear-drop shaped opening.



It's hard to tell from the picture, but the butterfly is making it's way out. It only took about 2 minutes. It looked like this and then...



...he was out. It was one smooth motion.



No wiggling, no jiggling. Just swoosh and he was free.






Now when he first came out his wings were very small and wrinkly. I wondered if something had gone wrong because we'd seen butterflies with deformed wings and they don't live very long. One wing in particular looked like it hadn't formed correctly and when I pointed this out Chase proclaimed, "Lucky fin!" If you've seen the movie Finding Nemo you know exactly what he's talking about. So right then we named him Nemo.



Nemo was having a bit of trouble getting himself in the right position to hang and dry his wings and we wanted to make sure he had a good chance at getting those wings just perfect, so Chase got Nemo onto his finger. Look at the little "grippers" at the end of his legs. Those are called tarsi. He can really hang on tight with those babies.



Then we placed him on a stick and situated him so he'd have plenty of space.



Within several minutes Nemo's wings were perfectly straight and looking strong. He's doing great now.



He'll just hang around all day and sometime tomorrow he'll decide to eat. We'll give him some watermelon and if the weather's nice we'll take him to grandma's butterfly bush and set him free.