Chrysalises not fully formed?

[Allison]

Hello, my daughter and I are new to this. 3 fat caterpillars (black and yellow striped) turned up on one of our butterfly weeds a few weeks ago and spun their cocoons soon after and turned into beautiful black and orange butterflies which I was told were monarchs. Then a week or so ago TWELVE small caterpillers appeared and we have been very busy trying to get enough milkweed/butterfly plant leaves to feed them all. (they stripped the two small plants we had but we have been getting leaves from neighbors)

The problem is: some of them have started spinning their chrysaleses (don't know how to spell correctly!) but two of them have what seems to be INCOMPLETE chrysalises -- you can see a little bit of black caterpillar sticking out of the top of the chrysalis! Does this mean they are deformed? Does anyone know what I can do in the future to perhaps provide a better environment or ??? I have really enjoyed watching the caterpillars grow and turn into butterflies and want to continue next year with some planned butterfly-raising activities.

Thanks.

Allison

[psi_chemie]

Are they actually spinning cocoons with silk, or is their skin falling off? The latter would be what you could expect from monarchs. The former would mean it's not a monarch (probably a moth).

If their skin doesn't fall all the way off and stays on top of the chrysalis that can be OK, as long as it is just shed skin sitting there on top.

Good luck!