[tinzaroo]

Hi Jacqui and others

After my recent loss of about 30+ pillars, I now have one in chrysalis (yay!) and five other 5th instars that are very fat, active, munching and growing!

The funny thing is though – they are really really dark in colour! The black is very dominant and not much yellow. Is this to do with the time of the season, or is it the cold? They do look very active and healthy. Is what I’m seeing usual, or unusual? thanks!!

[tinzaroo]

Interesting, isn’t it! I think these are all from the same batch of eggs laid by the same butterfly maybe … so it could be a natural colour variation. I think the fattest one is due to go to J status in about 2 days or so … and I’ll easily be able to track which chrysalis he is as I don’t have many. As long as he doesn’t wander off the plant, that is. I manage to intercept most of them, then I bring them inside out of the cold 🙂

[BlueSkyBee]

I’ve had some of these too, I just put it down to natural variation, I was interested to see if the hatched butterflies were different in any way, but lost track of the chrysalises in the end.

[Author]

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