I had one do that the first year I raised them.. and it did not eclose. Fingers crossed that you have better luck.

~Laura

I recently had one that was quite small as a chrysalis and eclosed after not too long. It was like a "mini" butterfly, much smaller, but appeared to be fine and flew away to start her life!

Thanks for the responses. I'll hope for a "mini", and take a photo :)
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My mini butterfly eclosed today! It's a male, and perfect in every way, just tiny :) I will try to get a photo tomorrow.

Oh good, look forward to teh photo!

Here he is!

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Interesting! I was going to start a thread about small cats making small chrysalides, but I'll just put it here. It's been a banner year for this.
I had a giant swallowtail that pupated early this past spring, and the "rabbit ears" part of the chrysalis was bent back a little also, but the butterfly was perfect, just small, certainly not a "giant" giant swallowtail.
Same thing happened with a buckeye - the first one pupated while small and made a small buckeye.
And a variegated fritillary pupated too soon, making a variegated frit that wasn't much bigger than a pearl crescent!
I assume they're just as healthy as the normally sized individuals - they certainly looked to be.
Sherry

I'm not the only one that occasionally raises a smaller than average butterfly, Mother Nature does, too!
A little female gulf frit that I didn't raise nectared on my lantana yesterday -
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Compare her to this gulf frit in an older picture -
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Sherry