Just found this attached on one of my lime bushes. I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to see (as well as record it) when it'll emerge out as a butterfly. But this is how I just found it a few minutes ago - I was only admiring my lime bushes...
Wow beautiful limes… and lovely to see and a crystalis… hope you can catch the butterfly emerge… My neighbor attaches a small netting with close pins over the area circling the branch. This protects the butterfly when they emerge from hungry birds.
That's actually an amazing idea! To protect the butterflies as they emerge. However I probably won't do that, as I might not be able to keep a close eye on it. So I fear that in my particular situation the butterfly might die from starvation - As they too very badly need the sugary nectar from flowers to get energy, otherwise they'll die... But since I nowadays can't be with my plants 24/7, is the reason why I probably won't be doing that - Yet it's an amazing idea, so thanks for sharing! Anyhow, below is what it's looking like right now. No idea how long it'll stay like this. But it shouldn't be too long now. The butterflies I mostly see in my locality are the orange colored African Monarch butterflies. So it's probably one of those.
Well looking into it really close, I think I can see the butterfly developing inside - Or am I only imagining it? Not sure but when I put on a close up lense on the phone, I get even more detail. And believe it or not, but while I was doing this - To my astonishment I just now found a second cocoon of a butterfly underneath another branch of the other lime bush, (I have 8 of them in total).
To my surprise, they still haven't hatched yet... Anybody got any idea how long thry usually take inside the cocoons?
