Tdogmom...when the Monarchs get to last instar they eat like there's no tomorrow...as if you didn't know! Around 7 or 8 PM I bring in a big handful of leaves and think it will hold them til morning. Luckily I wake up a couple times during the night so I find them just sitting on the sticks waiting for "more, please"...LOL. So I turn on the back porch lights and traipse out there with the flashlight, pick more leaves, wash them and put them in cleaned out container. Some nights I'm smarter or just in better "memory state" and keep a stalk in water in fridge so I don't have to make the night run to the garden but never seem to have enough for the big guys...and the little ones seem to zoom in milkweed consumption after 4th instar. If I had more than the 9 Monarchs I'd raise them differently with a potted plant so they'd have more room to roam and be in a more natural setting. Didn't want to take the chance with these 9 since they were all different sizes and worried about cannibalization so kept them segregated. Geez...sounds like I'm running a boot camp for delinquent Monarch cats...LOL.

Update on 3 of my chrysalises! 3 eclosed yesterday after approx 4 weeks - amazing experience and so beautiful! Sad news though that one fell from the spot it was holding onto (it was a little windy) right after eclosing. It was crawling in the soil so I put a stick down and it climbed up and I hung it from a nearby plant with a clothespin. The wings plumped up for awhile but never fully finished. I found it this morning dead. So very sad that it made it thru almost to the end to die. Butterfly raising, although so exciting, can be stressful. I understand why people raise them indoors and then release them!

Jean: I can't measure the Monarchs as they all JUST eclosed pre-dawn -- 8 new butterflies are drying their wings as I type. :) The Queen chrysalises pictured above are in the same enclosure, so I don't want to disturb the newly emerged Monarchs. However, the length/size of my final Queen chrysalis (formed yesterday) is typical of the others, IIRC; and it's measuring just shy of 3/4" (excluding the cremaster): HTH Later today, after the Monarchs have taken flight, I'm happy to measure whatever Monarch chrysalises might be left, just to compare.

I also had a cat that began to form it’s chrysalis on a leaf, then fell a short distance and “bled” a bit of its green fluid. I rehung it after it appeared that the chrysalis was sealing back as it hardened. It survived and successfully became a butterfly I released. I also had two other harder falls during the 2021 season that did not survive so I quickly euthanized them. I think the first post asking about the diagonal lines differs from the damaged chrysalis pictures. I had one do that and it’s the butterfly’s antenna forming. The chrysalis is clear. You can begin to see the parts of the little beasties as it gets closer to the time they are to eclose. Start your milkweed seeds SOON, place seeds in the north on soil once cold is there for good (cold, not freeze). Step on them gently to make contact with soil. Nature will cold stratify for you and milkweed will emerge in its season! Throw some in woodlands or ditches near you!