Seeing chrysalis in the wild . ?

[Orangeaid]

I have never in my 4 years of raising cats ever seen a chrysalis in the wild. I was wondering if this is common among all monarch rearers who go out and find eggs and cats on wild milkweed populations. Maybe like Jim said the mortality rate in the wild is approx 99% and the chances of seeing one is slim. Iam assuming that in the wild they would stay on the milkweed and form the chrysalis and not move to some other location but i have witnessed some strange locations at my house such as on the underneath side of a picnic table unbrella , under my deck and under the soffit of my house. For some reason when they escape ( rarely ) they take off to some unusual places and they can move pretty quick when they want to.

[psi_chemie]

I saw my first one last year. It was in tall grass, attached to two stalks of grass woven together with silk. I almost stepped on it.

[jen]

Hello
Saw one EMPTY last fall , dangling from a milkweed leaf. I searched the same patch weeks earlier, never found any cats. Weird!
Jen

[Gwynne]

From this site I have learned that caterpillars generally leave the milkweed to find a nice, secluded spot to make their chrysalises. I have one now that made its chrysalis on milkweed, but that was in a contained space. I took him outside to take picture the other day. I felt like I was dragging my baby around for pictures or something!

[F3]

I've never found a chrysalis in the wild. I never really find any late instars in the wild either. Eggs seem to be what I find the most (I can't even re-stock the milkweed without finding some), along with the occasional first instar. Something seems to be snatching the young caterpillars, because I've seen plenty of trademark "U" shaped holes in leaves and no larva to be found.

[Farfalla]

The children in my class found a Monarch just emerging from her chrysalis in the tomato patch this past September. The milkweed patch and butterfly garden was some distance away from one another.To see the process happening outdoors seemed like a miracle to me!

Once ,years ago, before I was into rearing butterflies, I saw a Black Swallowtail emerging from it's chrysalis while hiking with my husband.
At that time,I wasn't even sure what we were looking at .After researching it I found out that BST's overwinter in the chrydalide form.Since then I spend part of every winter hike looking for BST chrysalises..but have never found a one.