I was getting ready to pin a bunch of chrysalides for display today when I realized it would be fun to take a picture of the collection first and offer up a little “Can you ID it?” quiz for you. So, here’s the picture. There are seven types of chrysalis pictured here. Take a good look, make your guesses, and then scroll down for the answers!
Before I give you the answers, a few words about the chrysalis…
- A chrysalis is the pupal stage of butterfly metamorphosis. The proper pluralization is “chrysalides”, although “chrysalises” is also acceptable.
- The word comes from the Greek for “gold”, and some chrysalides appear to have gold coloration (see the Common Crow for an amazing example) or gold flecks, like monarchs or zebra longwings. This is actually just a trick of the light refracting through the skin of the pupa, but it makes for a pretty cool effect nonetheless.
- Though many people refer to this stage as a “cocoon”, that is incorrect. A cocoon is a protective case spun around the pupal case, and is used to refer to moths, not butterflies (yup, that means that The Very Hungry Caterpillar book is wrong!).
- Chrysalides vary widely in appearance from species to species, as they are designed to blend in with their surroundings to offer the pupa the best possible camouflage during this very vulnerable time.
OK, enough talk… on to the answers!
Polydamas Swallowtail (Battus polydamas)
Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae)
Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charithonia)
Long-Tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus)
Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)
Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes)
How did you do?
- 1 – 3 Correct Answers: Butterfly Beginner
- 4 – 6 Correct Answers: Pupa Pro
- 7 Correct Answers: Lepidoptera Leviathan!
I'm amazed that not only do you know what all these chrysalises are but that you have all of them at one time. Your garden must be fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marsha! At any given time, we're usually raising up to a dozen different native species in our lab, depending on what's flying in Central Florida at that time of year. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!
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