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Our last cat turned into a chrysalis this morning while we were at church. This one turned out to be a bright green chrysalis. That gives us 2 bright green ones and 8 brown ones.

I should have written an update to yesterday’s post. We were able to watch as our last cat attached himself to the stick. There is a thread of some sort that loops around their neck and holds them into position while they are in their chrysalis. (See it here – scroll down until you see the picture of the chrysalis.) We had not been able to figure out where it came from or how it gets around his neck – but NOW we know! He makes it with his mouth!

He holds on to the stick with his back feet and moves his body back and forth (leaning backwards) from one side to the other. He’ll start on one side of the stick, then leans way back as he moves to the other side of the stick. It looks like he is chewing the air. He stops at the other side for a short time and then leans back again and goes back to the first side. It took a while before we could actually see the string. Back and forth he went until it was thick enough. When he’s ready, he goes to one side, bends down a little more and just pops himself inside the loop. Then he bends WAY back and wiggles around until the string is around his body like he wants it. Then he bends his head over and starts getting into the J-shape. His hind feet do not let go of the stick for several more hours but they pretty much disappear before he turns into a chrysalis.

We are still totally amazed by this whole process and we haven’t even gotten to the butterfly part yet! It will take 8-11 days before they come out as butterflies. That means we could have some as early as Thursday, but it will likely be next weekend before we see any action. I am starting to wonder if the chrysalis who came via the USPS will do anything since he has been here at our house for about 10 days now. He may not have survived the trip. We will let you know when we start seeing some butterflies!

Filed under: Adventures, Family on July 10th, 2005