From caterpillar to butterfly

doenoe · Feb 11, 2009

#1 Well, if you are a born a caterpillar you start your life eating...........alot

#2 When you think you had enough too eat, you find a nice spot to just hang around a bit. Make sure you find a really nice spot, since you're gonna be hanging there for a while.

#3 After a time and you are sure that you are hanging comfortable, you can take of the jacket and hang around naked...........how groovy is that

#4 Nobody really knows what happens at this stage, but it really is sensational. While you hang there naked, everything below your skin turns into a pulp and somehow finds a new place and your skin becomes a new jacket

#5 And then, when you are done hanging around, you crawl out of your jacket again, pump some blood into your new wings (where the*bleep* did those come from) and end up looking like this

Isnt nature beautiful :mrgreen:
Thanks for looking
Greetz Daan

dry3210 · Feb 11, 2009

Thats pretty crazy stuff. How long of a time are we looking at here with these pics?

Dagwood56 · Feb 11, 2009

These are GREAT! And I loved the little commentary that went along with them too.

doenoe · Feb 12, 2009

dry3210 said:
Thats pretty crazy stuff. How long of a time are we looking at here with these pics?

Thanks for the comment

I was in the exhibit for about 3 hours. These are all the same caterpillar though. When i first came in, i found the one hanging in #2. I found the butterfly at half-time and the caterpillar in #1 was found at the end of the time. When i was ready to leave i saw that the hanging caterpillar was loosing its jacket. That came of pretty fast, took about 5 minutes. But its all the same species

Dagwood56 said:
These are GREAT! And I loved the little commentary that went along with them too.

Thank you

EricD · Feb 12, 2009

Very cool shots...awesome close ups!

TwoRails · Feb 13, 2009

Very nice series !

-- reminds me of when I was a kid: I use to "grow" butterflies :shock:

-- I would bring home plants with their "cocoons" on them and put them in a fish tank setup. I'd watch them "bloom" and then set them free. Too bad I didn't have a camera back then

digimania · Feb 14, 2009

That is a great life cycle series of the Monarch.
Richard

doenoe · Feb 17, 2009

EricD said:
Very cool shots...awesome close ups!

Cheers

TwoRails said:
Very nice series ! -- reminds me of when I was a kid: I use to "grow" butterflies :shock: -- I would bring home plants with their "cocoons" on them and put them in a fish tank setup. I'd watch them "bloom" and then set them free. Too bad I didn't have a camera back then

Thats pretty cool. Should try to find a cocoon, that would be really cool to photograph. Especially when the butterfly pops out. Could make a great timelapse too.