This Morning’s Butterfly
Aug 28th, 2008 by Alicia
One of our monarchs emerged from her chrysalis this morning. (Victoria thought from the size of the markings she was a female so I’ll take her word for it!) After she’d hung for a while to let her wings dry we thought she was ready to fly free. Victoria, Alex and I took her out to let her go.
She hung around on Victoria’s hand for a while before finally flying to the swingset. Victoria thought she’d like perching on a rose better so she held her finger out and the butterfly grabbed on and went to the rose. She was having trouble hanging on so Victoria (ever the overprotective mother!) moved her to the black eyed susans, where she happily stayed until she finally flew away.
Alex was enthralled, though he quickly become more enthralled in a water puddle he found. 
Isn’t she beautiful?
Great pictures! When I raised butterflies with my kids, my son accidentally stepped on one during our release celebration. It was a tragedy and he was so sad … Glad to see a happy “momma” letting go of her butterfly.
Beautiful butterfly! I think, though, it may have been a boy. I can’t see it’s bottom/lower wings fully, but males have a black spot in the middle of each of their lower wings along one of the veins. These spots are pheremones that only the males have. I think I can see the spots from the pics, but I’m not positive as I can’t see the whole wing. Have fun hatching those monarchs!
Jeanne
Ooops, actually I can see the whole bottom wing, but from the underside, not from the top. Still looks like the spots are visible.
Jeanne
Just gorgeous!