In My Garden #2

A lime tree is usually the favourite place for butterflies to lay eggs, thus routine check before seeing most of the leaves become victim of the caterpillars is always in my "must" checklist. This gave me the hint to look for crawling caterpillars in the tree. Anyhow it was too late to see caterpillar, instead I found a chrysalis hanging from the bottom of a leaf.

The aerodynamic design helped this chrysalis to withstand strong wind, I see. But please do not be mistaken, this is only my part of theory.

Observe carefully you may find the chrysalis was attached to the bottom surface of a leaf by a silken pad spun by the caterpillar. I counted there were totally three thin silky threads holding the chrysalis in place.

Once I shook the twig, the chrysalis vibrated like a swing but remained intact. This is another fascinating design of the nature.

I came back the next morning after a heavy rain at the break of dawn. My garden was wet, fallen leaves from grape tree were scattered around. The chrysalis was still there, with a hot couple misusing its abdomen. It was helpless, immovable and largely defenseless, what it could do was only crying silently. Can you see the tear holding for the last minutes before tearing apart from the chrysalis?

This last picture shows two of the silky threads much clearly for your view. The hot couple focused too much on their affairs, though in the open, they remained ignorant even I kept changing angles looking at them.