Jim and Carol Patton have a garden full of milkweed. They’re currently hosting three chrysalises, although at noon they had four. The monarch’s chrysalis begins as a vibrant green for several days, then darkens, becomes black, then clears just as the butterfly emerges. I noticed that the one hanging from a plant stand had turned black earlier today. I went over to their house three times, then when I returned for the fourth time I knew the time was ripe. I planned to sit and wait, thinking that I would have enough time to cross the street, grab my copy of “The Great Influenza”, then return and read to await the emergence.
Just then I saw movement, the bottom of the chrysalis broke open, and what was destined to become a monarch butterfly dropped to the patio.
Birth + three seconds
After about fifteen seconds or so he turned over and began walking. I thought that he had emerged too early, that he wasn’t fully formed, that only one set of wings had developed, the rest of his body, just tissue. He’ll never fly, I thought.
Birth + a minute
A minute later he found another plant stand, began climbing and waited while the sun dried his wings. Meanwhile, what I thought was only tissue, as pictured above, became wings.
Birth + three minutes.
I put my finger out above his legs. He climbed up my hand, and I placed him on a nearby flower. From past experience I knew that he would cling there motionless, pumping fluid into his wings, a process that takes between an hour or two. As the wings filled with fluid he would open and close them several times before flying away.
I’d seen enough. I took a few more images, then returned to get ready for Game #5 of the Dodgers-Giants division series in two hours and forty-nine minutes, but who’s counting?
Carol texted. He spent almost three hours getting ready for the next part of his life. The monarchs may be endangered, but the Pattons and their milkweed are doing their fair share.
Birth + 5 minutes
Birth + 6 minutes