If you mean from the time you hear the sound of the chrysallis opening until the butterfly has emerged, I haven't had any species take more than just a few seconds.

~Laura

Thanks Laura, it took this little girl almost 2 hours, then she was too weak to hold on, I tried to put her on the netting but she still could not hold on.... but this was a cat that fed off of plants that were sprayed with round up before I found them. I still have one chrysalis left from a cat that was always kept seperate and fed only fresh milkweed.... but so far my first year with Monarch was not an encouraging one... not sure I want to do all this again only to have this much disappointment.

I understand your frustration. Last year, I had an entire batch of babies die I guess from black death. They were doing fine and then I came home after being out 1/2 a day and found them all in puddles of goo. :-( Made me sad and I felt terrible guilt, wondering if it was my fault or if I had done something wrong. But at the same time I know that their survival rate is very low in the wild - especially it seems in my yard where I've seen wasps, praying mantids, and spiders devour my precious caterpillar babies. So as long as I know that my intentions are good and that each experience teaches me to be a better steward to these creatures, I'm going to keep doing my part to help them along. Please don't get discouraged and quit. I do find that some species are easier to raise (black swallowtails, fritillaries, and question marks were VERY easy) and so I try to raise several varieties at once so that a loss doesn't seem so bad.

Thinking of you and wishing you luck!
Laura

Thanks so much Laura for the encouragement. We will see how this next one will eclose, but truth be told... I will be planting some tropical milkweed next year and will be very excited to see the first baby on them and will continue to research to help them grow up to be the magestic monarch that I love to see... Thanks again :)

Earlier this week, I was cutting open my straggler cecropia cocoons to see who was alive and who did not make it. Found something I had never seen before. The abdomen was elongated and spotted. The pupa case was missing the piece behind the moths head. I thought, "Oh my gosh!! This must be what an eclosing cecropia looks like!! I'll finally get to see it happen!!" I've seen cecropias squeeze out of their cocoons but the pupa is hidden from view when that happens, hence why this was exciting. I took video for a while but nothing was happening. I started to think that the moth was doomed since the pupa case was cracked open but nothing was happening. Normally, you can get a cecropia pupa to wiggle but this one would not. I put it back in its inner cocoon but left the top hanging out so I could easily see it. When I got up, I looked at it but still no moth. I wish I had looked at the pupa abdomen again to see if its coloration had changed. In the afternoon, I found a moth had emerged and was doing fine.

So, from cracked pupa to eclose was 15+ hours that I know about (the pupa could have been cracked long before I saw it).