Painted Lady Butterflies Develop, Emerge in Time Lapse

Here we see the later life stages of several Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)Butterflies. Once the caterpillars are mature, they suspend themselves upside-down, by attaching a body part called the "cremaster" to a silken pad on the twig, much like the way Velcro works.

In about 1 day, the caterpillar sheds its final skin to complete the pupation process. Inside the pupa, the caterpillar has essentially liquified itself into a soup of cells. During the next 12-14 days, metamorphosis takes place - the cells are "re-arranged" and transformed into the adult insect. For most of this process, there is no visible change on the outside, but as the final few days approach, the developing adult butterfly can be seen through the semi-transparent pupal case. The butterfly's wing colors and pattern can be seen to darken. Finally, the fully developed adult separates from the pupal shell about an hour before it emerges, a process called "eclosion".

Once the adult emerges, it takes only a few minutes to expand its wings by pumping a body fluid into the wings' vein structure. After a couple of hours, the fluid dries and hardens, leaving the wings rigid enough propel it in flight.

The soundtrack is "Painted Ladies Theme" from the StarSpin EP/CD by Technician (yours truly), MP3 downloads and CDs available at the Technician website: HTTP://technician.jcmdi.com

Enjoy the show! :-)

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[benjevator]

what is that song called?

[jcmegabyte]

@benjevator That is "Painted Ladies" (I couldn't think of a better title and it seemed to fit well XD) from my StarSpin CD. More details in this video's description...

[benjevator]

@jcmegabyte that goes with the butterflies right? because they are painted ladies.

[jcmegabyte]

@benjevator Yep! =)

[DominoHong]

wow you got many of them xD

[jcmegabyte]

@DominoHong Sometimes we get epic migrations of these and there are litereally everywhere! :-) Thanks for visiting!

[benjevator]

@jcmegabyte I have 31 chrysalises and some of the wings are showing.

[stellarjenny]

i love this!

[benjevator]

@jcmegabyte ok because i knew that!

[benjevator]

@jcmegabyte your welcome!

[benjevator]

@benjevator well did you let them go?

[benjevator]

@alicewendon nature is beautiful because of animals and butterflies!