Metamorphosis, Marianne Bickett

This video contains two actual-time movie clips chronicling the two major transitions of the Monarch butterfly’s metamorphosis. The first shows a Monarch caterpillar morphing into a chrysalis (May 2024), and the second shows an adult butterfly emerging from its chrysalis (June 2024).
The Hawai’i resident Monarch butterfly lays its eggs on the Crown Flower plant, a local milkweed relative, and the hatched caterpillars ravenously devour the leaves and purple flowers of their host plant. The caterpillars grow from nearly invisible babies to monsters in about two weeks, and then they search for a snug (and hopefully safe) spot to transform into their chrysalides (the Greek plural of chrysalis). After a week to ten days the chrysalis changes from opaque green to black, and then to almost clear as the adult butterfly emerges to explore its brief adult adventure. Metamorphosis.