Pupating Monarch
South Miami, Florida
A sequence of ten photographs of the same caterpillar (larva) was put together for this image. It shows a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) transforming into a chrysalis (pupa). These photographs were taken in our own back yard. It is not strictly a time-lapse series; the images are not taken at equal intervals. For this sequence, Nancy had the camera on a tripod with her chair in the garden, waiting six hours for something to happen. Her first clue was when the antenna went limp, sort of swaying in the breeze, as shown in second photo. This happened about an hour before the chrysalis was first visible. About a minute before the chrysalis first appeared, the caterpillar relaxed its "J" formation (as in third photo). When the slit finally appeared in the back of the neck (shown in fourth photo), things began to happen fast - the next two photos were taken within 60 seconds, and the two after that took another forty-eight seconds. The ninth photo was taken a little more than nine minutes after the slit, and the final photo represents the chrysalis as it would appear several hours later.
This is our second image showing part of the metamorphosis of a monarch butterfly, and is actually the prequel to Emerging Monarch.
For more information, check out the following:
Our Newest Teacher’s Poster, Pupating Monarch, Is Ready,
Answers To Your Butterfly Questions,
The Newest Addition To Our Monarch Metamorphosis Collection, and
Life Cycle of Monarch Butterfly.
To order a print of this image, hit the button to the left. Before you do, you may want to check the maximum size estimates or what's currently in stock below. Each item in stock has its own order button.
Photographic details: The first nine images were taken with Nancy's Canon EOS 7D camera w/ EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens set at 100mm. Flash was used. The camera was on manual exposure mode, set on f/8 for 1/250 sec at ISO 200. The last photograph was actually taken 26 months earlier with her Canon EOS 30D, using the same lense at 400mm. It was set at 1/640 sec on shutter priority, resulting in an aperture of f/20 at ISO 800. Flash was not used for this image.
| Print details: maximum size | Medium | Printed | Estimated | (In-house) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fine Art Paper | 10" x 16" | 37" x 60" | ||
| Canvas | 18" x 36" | 55" x 90"O | (371/2" x 75") |
Currently In Stock
Although we can print to your specifications any size up to the above limits to the nearest 1/16" with any mat and moulding combinations, the below prints are available immediately:
Although the resolution and sharpness of the image should allow for this, we would need to send an image this size somewhere else to get it printed. Our printer can print up to 44" across, meaning that practically, we can print an image on paper up to 431/2". On canvas, we could only go to 371/2", to make room for wrapping the edges. Thus our in-house size limit for this image is shown above in parentheses.