Problems Pupating

Discuss anything outside of the other forum topics that relates to monarch butterflies and/or Monarch Watch.

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Problems Pupating

Postby wintergem02 » Sat Aug 05, 2006 6:13 am

Our monarch caterpillar went into his J, started his wiggle-jiggle dance, began pupating, then stopped.

He's about 1/4 of the way between caterpillar and chrysalis and is now just hanging straight up and down. It's been 18 hours and we're heartbroken.

What went wrong? :(

(We started with an egg from a friend.)
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Postby MILW » Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:17 pm

oops, seems to be a lot of double postings going around!
Last edited by MILW on Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby MILW » Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:18 pm

Unfortunately that seems to happen now and then,and there are a number of possible causes. You can read about others with similar problems here.
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Problems Pupating

Postby wintergem02 » Sun Aug 06, 2006 7:30 am

Thank you very much for pointing me to the other discussions on this topic. I had done some searches but missed the most pertinent.

This is only our second year trying monarchs and it's been devestating.
We've lost bunches of babies and now our one mature adult is on his way out.

I think the hardest thing is watching him/her trying to pupate (it's been almost 48 hours now) and never getting more than its head out. He/she is trying so hard and seems to be out of energy. It kills me to go watch and not be able to do anything for it.

Guess I'll have to chalk it up to experience and try again.
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