Hi there, Sorry about your chrysalis. It could have been injured by the fall, or it could be OE (a parasite that can turn the chrysalis black) or some other parasite. Can you see any of the wing colors through the chrysalis? They are often also visible just before emerging. They detach sometimes, and you can leave them on the bottom of the cage. I set a clean paper towel down for it lie on. The butterfly will emerge and climb up the cage (be sure there is something for it to climb up if your rearing cage is glass, like an aquarium. I have done this many times, and the butterflies emerge perfectly. Easier and less risky than trying to rehang it. I also make sure that the gold spots are up since those seem to be the spiracles (little holes for breathing) based on a scientist's MRI imaging of a Monarch chrysalis. Good luck with your other butterflies! And thank you for rearing them. Does your library have a butterfly garden?

Doesn't look good to me either--I last a few chrysalides this year to OE, and not just ones I brought inside. I found ones outside too that had been afflicted. If it's worse today and getting mushy, I would remove the chrysalis and put it in the freezer for a couple of days (wrapped up) and then flush it. Tdogmom's blog has info on this. You can do a search for her blog and threads will come up that have the link to her blog. In fact, the recent thread titled "What do you see in this photo" has a link to the blog. Sorry about your chrysalis. :(

Second image.

Not to totally dispute that, but researchers are on the fence as to just what keeps some of them in South Florida. Some say that there has always been a strain of Monarch that have over-wintered in South Florida. Some think that it was just a matter of a migrating group that got sidetracked due to changing landscapes and ended up in South Florida. Supposedly, some Monarchs have made it to Hawaii (or were released there) and are now year-round residents of those islands. They even have Monarchs over in Australia that have a similar, but upside down migration. Personally, I do not know, but I would hazard a guess that the food isn't what is keeping them here. I have a friend up in Michigan who grows milkweed in her yard for the Monarchs and many of her neighbors also grow it, but the Monarchs always leave long before hers is killed off by a frost. So she ends up having a month or more of the milkweed growing unhindered and reseeding itself. If they took their cues from the food, then they would stick around until the frosts come in. And supposedly once they go through the hormonal change for the long flight to Mexico as well as their extended lifespan (that really is an amazing feat on their part), they don't switch back until they have migrated back and are ready to breed again. So the idea that they switch to Migration Mode, travel to South Florida, switch to Breeding Mode and then switch back to Migration Mode in the Spring just seems off to me. If anything, I would say it is probably a number of factors that have put a year-round group in South Florida and no one plant or any other one thing is to blame.