A monarch caterpillar making its chrysalis, ending with what my daughter and I like to call the “dance.”

It’s quite fascinating, this stage. Did you know the caterpillar’s hindlegs become fused creating a new structure, which becomes the chrysalis creamster?

According to the book, “Florida Butterfly Gardening,” when the caterpillar is ready to make its chrysalis, it will discharge the remaining food from its gut and then find its spot to transform. The caterpillar will begin to look “lumpy,” and when ready, the caterpillar’s cuticle splits where its weakness lines are, along the thorax. The start of the chrysalis, green in this case, begins and continues, until it does “the dance,” and the remains of the skin falls off.