Chrysalis Palace

My husband, the Tree Hugger and proud butterfly Foster Father chimes in:

Eight of our babies are in chrysalises, a 9th has finished feeding and is climbing the glass. A 10th is fat and will climb within a day.  And of course, we've been blessed with an 11th. Junior (don't call him "the runt") may take another two days.

When they reach the lid of the tank, they kind of loafor 8 hours or so, then they let go at the head end, and hang down attached to the lid only at their tail end.  Then the head starts hooking upward so the caterpillar looks like a "J".  After about a day, they form chrysalises, and this seems to happen very abruptly.  We look in and it's a "J"; then look in a half hour, and it's a completed chrysalis. You never see a half-built chrysalis.