Friday, October 5, 2012

Metamorphosis - butterflies have emerged from the Chrysalis ship

Last time we were at Dalveen I took a photograph of a very interesting web.  In among the downhanging branches of some mistletoe, a butterfly - or possibly a moth - had laid her eggs.  By the time we saw it, the caterpillars had entered their chrysalises (probably that should be chrysalides) so we had no idea what would come out when they finally metamorphosed into winged creatures.  This is what the original chrysalises looked like.

And this is what happened while we were up there this week. 







Not sure if they are butterflies or moths.  The underside of the wings have the bright colours and the top of the wings is a whitish grey.  Whatever they are, they're very beautiful and what's interesting is they seem to be hanging around until they all emerge.  We had to come back today and there were still about half a dozen that hadn't emerged yet and about 15 were clinging to the web waiting.  There were a a couple of magpies sitting in the tree but they didn't seem interested in them.  Maybe the colour is designed to look like something that would taste terrible??  Mother nature - you've got to love her.

Postscript - Aha, I've got a name at last. This butterfly is an Imperial Jezebel or Delias Harpalyce - mostly found in Victoria and Eastern NSW