I found a folded over silked together cucumber leaf.
When I carefully peeked inside to see if it's a spider's lair, the thing started shaking violently!
That gave me a clue, and I was more confident about putting my eye to the opening because I knew it was most likely a butterfly or moth pupa, I found a chrysalis hanging inside, and it was furiously whipping back and forth. Seeing that it wasn't a chrysalis I recognized, I clipped off the leaf to bring inside.
I took a video of it but I need to edit it down (not sure how -- I have to ask my 12 yr old ) and also I still haven't figured out how to post one.
It took me a while to take good pictures because every time I tried to position the leaf for best view, the tail whipping would start all over again. But I finally got some good shots.
So here's a photocollage. It's a little hard to see, but the shape of the chrysalis is like Black Swallowtail with angular ridges and points, but it is hanging from one end like a Monarch. Initially, it looked buff colored with dark points. Once I brought it inside and the leaf wilted a little, one end of it showed up a little more and it's metallic
We'll keep it on our butterfly rearing table and see what comes out.
- applestar
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- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
Ah ha! Maybe Red Admiral https://bugguide.net/node/view/311630
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