Hi Bev, the chrysalis will eclose in about 10-14 days. IF it's healthy and hasn't been parasitized, or perhaps found by a predator and eaten, or some other hazards that could befall the chrysalis. However, it's already beaten enormous odds to make it to this stage (as you've noticed - lots little cats, not many make it to pupate). Perhaps next year you can help them along and bring some in to raise? :-D Monarchs are a tropical species. They can't overwinter in a temperate climate. They can't even fly below approx. 50 degrees F (10 C). In North America, there are 2 primary over-wintering locations - along the coast of California, and some fir forests in the mountains of central Mexico, where they are occasionally exposed to harsh weather, but many still manage to survive. Black Swallowtails, on the other hand, ARE a temperate species, and many of the chrysalises that I have in my tank right now will probably over-winter with me (in the garage) and eclose next Spring. Amazing that they can survive snow, ice, and freezing temps outside! (PS. We are pretty smart on this forum, but the real knowledge about b-flies is on the Butterfly forum! :)

I saw two monarchs in my yard yesterday, on my lantana, this was the first time I have ever seen monarchs in my yard! At least I think they were monarchs, I am new to this so I am still learning, lol. I have seen what i think are gulf frits on my lantana several times, but the ones yesterday looked to be monarchs to me. I get a lot of the small yellow butterfles, I see those everyday, near my hibiscus and bottlebrush tree, not sure if those plants are what is attracting them though, I never see them nectar, just flying around. I have seen them nectar on my mexican heather plants. I also saw, a few weeks ago, two butterflies or moths, not sure, they were dark almost black, with a green-blue "sheen" on the backs of their bodies, and they had a long "tail" they were also on my lantana. Until I accidentally fell into the hobby of raising caterpillars, I didn't notice how many butterflies my yellow lantana attracts!! I think the previous owner of my home, must have been into butterfly gardening, because apparently a lot of the plants that he put in the yard, are butterfly faves! It has been such an incredible experience raising the GST cats that I found on my citrus, that I have been thinking about making a "butterfly" garden, with larval and nectar plants native to this area, but I know very, very little about plants, butterflies, etc, so I am in process of researching which larval and nectar host plants would be ideal for my area. I would love to host monarch cats, but I have not seen milkweed in my area, that I am aware of anyway.

Our plants are so messed up. We still have white autumn asters (the little native ones) in bloom for the butterflies, but most other autumn wildflowers seem like they are finishing up, so the monarchs need to hurry up and get headed south. The last day or two, I've seen several new, freshly emerged monarchs hanging onto plants, wings stretched out---like they are drying their wings before they fly. Since the fall wildflowers are finishing up (goldenrod and liatris are done, white asters and some of the blue autumn sage still are blooming in the fields, and some of the helenium too), I think the butterflies cannot delay heading south too much longer. However, we have some spring bloomers, largely red Indian paintbrush and the pink Spring Beauties, and some tiny frogfruit flowers too, that have emerged and are blooming. I assume that they went dormant in the hot, dry summer weather as always and then, when all that heavy rain fell at the end of August, they reacted as if it were spring, and sprouted, grew and are blooming now. It is odd, but not unheard of after a very dry summer. The various types of butterflies that hang around the garden still have morning glories, four o'clocks, daturas, moonvine flowers, periwinkles, zinnias and more in bloom, but the monarchs that are traveling are going to be finding less and less in the fields at this late date. Normally the monarchs all have cleared our area by now, but I've seen some every day this week so they're obviously lagging behind. If yours left a couple of days ago, then ours should clear the area here soon. We've been pretty warm during the day, but some of the nights have been in the 40s at our house and in the 30s at our Mesonet station at Burneyville. I'm not sure what their cold tolerance is, but surely they know they need to be getting further south than here by this late in October.

Interesting you have none this year because last weekend mine was covered. I wonder if some particularly good southern winds just sped them further South than they normally get at this time of year, because they've never been early enough to feast on the heptacodium tree here. Usually they wouldn't be here for another two or three weeks. I'm in NE Pa and they started showing up last Saturday and continued to trickle in through Sunday until there were maybe three or four dozen on the tree. Then they disappeared on Monday as the rains of Florence moved through. Now a week later a few more are showing up, but it's closer to a dozen or so at one time so we'll see what this cold front brings. Your tree looks beautiful and the arch really sets off that part of the garden!