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Saturday 28 June 2014

Raising Swallowtails - Part 10 - The Eclosion!

With 13 chrysalises I hoped I'd get to witness at least one eclosion, but after having missed the first two by maybe just a minute or two it was time to do something about it. I knew the third one was imminent as it was already showing signs of wing colouration through the chrysalis skin and luckily it was one of the few on a stick, so I could take it out of the box. The rest are irritatingly hanging off the mesh lid or on the sides of the plastic box.

So with thanks to my friend Marianne who told me to just set up a camera and leave the video running, but also set a timer to remind me every 15 mins or so to check on it, I duly set to work. Luckily my OH had a mini tripod that was perfect for my old Cybershot. Out came the blue tack to fix the stick in place - as I needed light for the video I stuck the top of the stick to the window frame. Then the background looked naff so my OH got some kitchen paper and we blue tacked that in place to make this makeshift studio!

My studio.

After running two batteries flat that afternoon/early evening I was pretty sure it would be eclosing around 8am the following day as that seems a popular time with these butterflies. So I set the video but also decided to sit in the kitchen waiting and watching.... when suddenly I noticed the chrysalis had just started to split. I grabbed my camera and took photos too (you'll notice my flash going off in the video but that can't be helped).

So here it is, it doesn't last long and you can view it full screen with reasonable quality, but there isn't a medium size option, unfortunately. (P.S. I have reloaded this with added music and taken out the original sound track of me stomping about the kitchen and the noise of my flash going off!)


Aaargh the darn thing climbed straight upwards and up the window frame! I had imagined it would dangle from the chrysalis for a while which is why I set the camera in a position that would show that. Well I'll know next time. :-)

Note the browny-red liquid that the butterfly excreted as it was eclosing. This is pupal fluid although last year's ones managed to do it outside of the chrysalis; this year's are obviously tidy beasts.

So here are the photos I took at the same time as the videos, and would you believe that just after the final shot shown here the batteries died in my Speedlite! But it didn't matter as I've plenty of photos from that stage onwards from the other butterflies.







Climbing up the window frame.

This was the only salvageable bit of the rest of the video which started with the eclosion - a few seconds where it sticks its proboscis out and has a good old wiggle. I had grabbed the camera, tripod and all, to try to film some more but managed to get most of it out of focus!


Here are a few photos from the first Swallowtail to eclose that I must have just missed by a minute or two, judging by how crumpled up its wings are. These start to smooth out very quickly after eclosion.

Freshly eclosed and climbing up the stick towards the chrysalis that featured in my video.

Hugging its sibling!

I left this one in the box for a while, usually I put them on a pot plant but it seemed
perfectly happy hanging off the chrysalises and getting its wings in working order!

Here's a not very good video of one of them flapping its wings to pump 'blood' (called hemolymph) into them and also exercising its proboscis a bit. 


My African Violet makes a handy place for them to hang from
until they are ready to go outside.

You get nicer photo ops with flowers in the background.

And here's one from last year when it was released. I already took dozens of photos of them last year when I set them free. My first two this year flew off straight away and the third sat on a flower for a while.

It's a really wonderful feeling releasing these beautiful creatures that you've raised yourself.

Well there you have it, over these 10 posts I think I have pretty much covered everything involved in the whole life cycle of these butterflies, but if there's an opportunity to video a pupation.... well I'll see how I go with the next batch!

The previous post showing photos of a pupation are here in Part 9, if you missed it.

21 comments:

  1. Fantastic! And you got stills too! This Swallowtail is stunning.

    So.... next year I want to see one morphing into a chrysalis! :-)

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    1. Thank you Marianne, and thanks for the push to video it! I now need to edit out the sounds that I hadn't realised were there....... oh so much to learn about making and editing videos, lol! :-)

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  2. Excellent photos Mandy, and nice getting on video, makes sense of the pupal fluid.

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    1. Thank you Ian - last year they seemed to squirt out the pupal fluid into the container they were in, but it filled up the chrysalis case very nicely this time! Only just realised I need to edit out the noises of me stomping around the kitchen and camera sounds - I rarely turn my speakers on and have very little video editing experience so it never occurred to me about sound! So much to learn, lol. :-)

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  3. Well worth waiting for! Such a beautiful thing to witness and you've illustrated the stages very nicely with you photos and excellent videos. It's hard work trying to get the timing right for emergence. I recently had two moths and a Comma butterfly chrysalis that I had been rearing and had to go away for just two days, when I got back, all had emerged. A couple of years ago, I had, I think it was about 13 Orange-tip butterflies and missed everyone, one whilst getting a coffee having watched it for 2 hours! So well done all round and thanks for sharing this...

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    1. Thanks a lot JJ! It was really amazing to watch and I'm so pleased I managed to video it as I watched it back many times and I'm not bored yet! Something a friend mentioned to me which I hadn't known but I can see in one of the photos is that the proboscis is in two parts when they first eclose, and that wiggling about of it helps fuse them together. Just read about it in this article (random google search): http://butterflycircle.blogspot.fr/2008/06/butterfly-proboscis.html

      I know how you felt missing your ones because I was like that last year, missing all 4 that I raised! I wish I could find some other butterfly caterpillars to try to raise. Moth caterpillars I've found but never dared yet try... may have to branch out. :-)

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Hi!
      Apologies I added a link to a page where I first saw the split antennae thing and then realised, I'd already shared it with you and so deleted it!

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    4. No need to delete it JJ - I wanted to see it again now you've mentioned it, so got the link from the email that came through so I've just watched it and yes it's obvious isn't it? I didn't see that first time I saw your video. There is just so much to learn and I could raise butterflies every year and I bet I'd still be learning new things!

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  4. Well done Mandy and thank you for all your time and effort, it was worth it...
    Amanda xx

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    1. Thanks very much Amanda and it was well worth it - fascinating things and I love having the caterpillars as pets. :-)))))))

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    1. Thanks Carl! Just released my 4th butterfly - only another 9 chrysalises to go and I have about 20 caterpillars as well. Do you think I've become obsessed? ;-)

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  6. I found myself holding my breath this was so exciting. Thanks so much for filming it.

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    1. Thanks very much Sarah and I'm glad you enjoyed it! A couple more eclosed this morning although I missed the event but it was less important this time. :-)

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  7. Ohhhhhhhhhh this is just amazing !!!
    I shared it/the page on FB public :)

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  8. That is simply amazing Mandy, what a marvellous experiment.
    I was glad of the opportunity to visit you Blog.

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    1. Thanks very much for visiting, Roy and I'm glad you enjoyed it. They make great pets whilst still caterpillars. My husband thinks I'm nuts because I talk to them. :-)

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