Sounds like it might be close to emerging, embee! Make sure the container is deep enough, because when the butterfly does emerge, it clings to the chrysalid, hanging down quite a bit below the chrysalid. If it doesn't have enough room to hang down, the wings will be bent and it won't be able to fly.

Woo-hoo! I look forward to your post that it has eclosed successfully.

Susan

When it does emerge, you will HAVE to let it go as it will not survive in a tupperware container. Better to let it out in the great outdoors where it will be in the hands of Mother Nature. Hopefully, you will be around when it begins to emerge, as once it open its wings and warms up a bit, it will want to fly. It can bash itself to smithereens if kept in tight quarters.

A very sad event -- I wish that I had received some of these responses early enough. Literally the NEXT DAY, I found the butterfly at the bottom of the tupperware, with a small amount of dark liquid. It was just sitting there all curled up, so I gently took the tupperware outside on a beautiful, warm day, let it crawl out of the tupperware amd sit on a twig, then a flower, in direct sunlight, in shade, all without handling it at all, but its wings never inflated. It wound up crawling around all day and unfortunately later died. I feel absolutely terrible and beside myself. I feel like if I had just left it alone outside, it would have been fine. I believe that my monarch hatching days are over, but I wish all of you the very best and thank you for the response. Sorry.

embee, don't feel bad. Remember, you took it in under the best of intentions.

The fact is, even those that are better informed about how to raise butterflies and moths lose a large percentage of them when they bring them in to 'protect' them. It's absolute 'carnage' over there in the butterfly forum some weeks! It really takes some know-how to succeed. They are simply fragile insects. There is a large possibility that your butterfly would have done the same thing in the wild.

Know, too, that moths and butterflies in ALL stages of development are prey to a host of diseases, predators and parasites. It is my own personal belief that Nature does a far, far better job at driving the bus than humankind, and I pretty much let Nature take her course.

If I were to happen on a butterfly chrysalis, I would leave it be, but keep an eye on it. I've had many great experiences that way....my favorite with a Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. However, I have also seen some fat and happy birds make off with them, too. That does not disturb me at all.

It sounds like you have an acute love of the natural world, and the more you learn about it...the more fascinating it all becomes. Don't feel bad about this experience; just learn from it.