You may remember Liberace.
Colourful, vibrant and vivacious. My caterpillar, Liberace.
A couple of weeks ago I showed you a video of Liberace as he was just hatching out of his shell. After a few weeks of eating, growing, eating growing, pooping, eating and growing, Liberace cloaked himself in a glittery chrysalis.
And a few days ago, he emerged. And I happened to catch it all on video.
And by "happened to catch" I mean I woke up early on the morning I knew it was going to emerge and sat beside the chrysallis for 6 hours until it happened.
Yeah he was late, and the opening act of a fly crawling across the counter was kindda lame, but when he finally came out, Liberace put on a spectacular show.
Nature. Gotta love it. It's a complete freak show.
Learn more about Monarchs at The Monarch Project.
DanniJ
So beautiful! Good luck Liberace.
Paint It White
Wow! that was fantastic, thanks for that.
Su
Great video! always humbling to see this spectacular show from Mother Nature.... thanks for sharing!
shawna
BTW Liberace is a girl. Great video.
Jody
How can you tell?
Alice
Males have a fairly prominent black spot on their wings. Liberace didn't have that.
Karen
For one thing the wing pattern is different Jody. I don't have them memorized but that's the easiest way to tell. ~ karen!
Karen
I forgot to check, lol. I don't have the wing patterns memorized. ~ karen!
Beth
Beautiful! Inspires me to try some filming --- Science Rules!
jainegayer
Magical!
Thank you, Karen.
Tigersmom
Great job. Perfect pairing of wonderful video and music.
Go be fabulous, Liberace!
Edith
Dear Karen! For some stupid reason, this video is not available in my country (Germany). Probably it is so because of the music you have used for it. As we have extremely stupid rules for youtube, I will never be able to show my kids how Liberace turned into a beautiful butterfly! Fortunately, I could show them, how he came out of his egg. (Eric Carle's "Very Hungry Caterpillar" is a kids' classic for German kids, too!) If there is any way to post the video without the music, my children and I will love you for the rest of our lives.
If we had monarcs over here, we would save them all.
Sally A
Stunning and amazing. As was mentioned, nature truly is magical. Such a beautiful video and the music was a perfect with it. Thank you for catching it for us! Go Liberace! Did you tag him for monitoring? ha!
Donna
Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars were on my parsley this summer--saw one emerge and fly off, very beautiful. Thanks for this.
GiGi
I am speechless- as I am sure many of the followers of the Monarch Project are of this video. It really is magic. Thank you.
Tracey
WOW, I'm in awe. And the song was a perfect fit. The Secret Sisters are amazing. Love the song.
I have to make sure I leave the milkweed to grow in my field and hatch my own monarch. I love that you would patiently wait 6 hours to capture this little miracle. Amazing!
Thank you!!
Christy
Spectacular! Worth every minute of the six hours you waited to capture it. The music was a beautiful match. Thanks for sharing.
victoria
Beautiful
Natika
Beautiful video for a beautiful creature.
Grammy
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Not just for the beautiful video, but for the project. What a wonderful thing to see. In the morning I'll share it with my 5-year-old grandson. We believe in magic.
Edith
Thank you for this beautiful tender post.
Wisconsingal
Beautiful music, incredible photography. I was enraptured. I've wanted to help save these magical winged creatures before I saw this, but you've given me a real sense of purpose. Thank you, Karen!
Laura
That was breathtaking! I feel like I just watched a National Geographic clip or something! I'm determined to plant a patch of milkweed next year for this exact reason. So lovely!
Shauna
WOW. Truly amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this experience.