Day 7.154: Emergence day

It doesn't seem long ago that our little cup of caterpillars arrived and rapidly started gaining weight. Eventually they shed their final caterpillar skins to become these beautiful gilded chrysalides:

Yes - it's true - sadly Eric Carle - although beloved of children and presidents - got it wrong there is no cocoon building in the process.

Anyway, each chrysalis gradually lost its gilding and darkened and today, while I was home for lunch I managed to watch the penultimate butterfly emerge

This was how it looked just after that:

And here's one posing for the camera: