Eggs, Larvae, and Chrysalides Photo Gallery by Sandy Schwinn at pbase.com

Eggs, Larvae, and Chrysalides

I have raised butterflies for over 25 years. The pictures in this gallery show stages of the metamorphosis process in different species of butterflies. Not all stages are shown for each butterfly. This gallery is definitely a "work in progress." As I get new photos, I will add them and may substitute a better photo for an existing photo. My goal is to document as many species and stages as possible. At the present time, twenty-five species are shown. All species are from my backyard. None of the eggs were purchased.

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Common Checkered-Skipper Egg	Common Checkered-Skipper Larva	Common Checkered-Skipper Chrysalis	Common Checkered Pupa Headshot	Viceroy caterpillar shaping leaf to make a hibernaculum
Viceroy caterpillar pulling the edges together.	The hibernaculum is complete.	Close up of the hibernaculum	Dried hibernaculum	Viceroy egg
Viceroy Caterpillar, first instar	Viceroy Caterpillar, just molted	Viceroy Caterpillar, ready to pupate	Viceroy Chrysalis	Goatweed Leafwing Egg - Anaea andria
Goatweed Leafwing caterpillar nest	Goatweed Leafwing caterpillar	Goatweed Leafwing Caterpillar	Goatweed Leafwing Chrysalis	Goatweed Leafwing (Anaea andria) Chrysalis - ready to eclose
Anaea andria - Goatweed Leafwing - newly eclosed	Monarch egg closeup	Monarch Egg on Milkweed	Monarch egg showing dark head of caterpillar	Monarch caterpillar recently molted
Monarch Caterpillar	Monarch Chrysalides	Monarch Eclosing	Newly eclosed Monarchs	Black Swallowtail Egg on Fennel
Black Swallowtail Egg on Rue	Black Swallowtail New Hatchling	Black Swallowtail Caterpillar	Four Chrysalides in a Row	Closeup Silver-spotted skipper egg
Newly hatched Silver-Spotted Skipper	Silver-spotted Skipper caterpillar	Silver-spotted Skipper ready to pupate	Silver-spotted Skipper "face"	Raft of Tawny Emperor Eggs

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comment |

Kimberly Muirhead		22-May-2012 18:02
What a great site! I have a few questions. I've been protecting/raising/releasing monarchs from eggs in my backyard for several years now and have plentiful supplies of milkweed growing on my property in gardens and pots (for enclosures). I've been wanting to try out Tiger Swallowtails and Spicebush Swallowtails for a while and recently found a site that sells their eggs. I'd love to try Luna Moths too since they are so gorgeous. I read that Tiger Swallowtails eat from Wild Cherry, White Ash, and Sweet Bay trees. Anything else that they (and the others I listed) eat that you know of? I read that Birch is also a food for swallowtails. I need to be sure I have the proper plants established before I get started, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know! Thank you so much. Kim Muirhead

Allison		24-Mar-2012 16:14
All those pictures look amazing. I am using lots of them for my project at school!

Jan Morris		02-Aug-2011 15:42
Very interesting gallery!

Chris Myers		11-Jul-2011 17:47
Asoultely beautiful Sandy, you are truly amazing. Huggs Chris

B		03-Mar-2011 15:11
I am writing a book on butterflies and wanted to know if I can use a high resolution picture of your Pearl Crescent chrysalis or buy it. I will give you photo credit in my book. Regards, Brenda Dziedzic

Guest		19-Aug-2010 19:39
Thanks for your photo of the black swallowtail hatchling...I wasn't sure what species it was until I compared it to your photo!

Katie		05-May-2010 23:07
I've raised Monarch caterpillars for two years now. Last summer 30 of them hatched into adult butterflies. The summer before that only 7 survived and became butterflies. The second summer of Monarch raising, I nursed and almost dead Monarch back to health and watched it fly away the next day. I even know how to tell a male Monarch from a female Monarch. So you could say I'm a Monarch expert. When I first started raising Monarch caterpillars, I was going into 7th grade. Now I'm almost done with 8th grade.

Katie		05-May-2010 22:47
Wow those pictures are amazing! Do you have any pictures of red admiral caterpillars in their first instar? Because I found a tiny little caterpillar about 1/2 a cm long and there are a lot of red admirals flying around my neighborhood so I wanted to confirm that the caterpillar I found is a red admiral caterpillar.

Jim Arterburn		04-Sep-2009 02:02
Sandy, This is a great gallery. I am amazed at the number of species you have here. Jim

Mike Hall		23-Aug-2009 02:52
What a fantastic rescource of info. Thank you for all the effort that you have put into this!

Sandy Schwinn		17-Jul-2009 21:46
Yes. Very few larvae survive to reach adulthood.

Guest		16-Jul-2009 16:11
Do you recommend using/making pupation boxes for your backyard larvae?

Guest		16-Jul-2009 16:08
Great pictures/info. Helped me identify the pearl crescent larvaes eating my aster plant! BH of Spring Hill, FL

Sandy Schwinn		20-Jun-2009 00:17
Northeast Oklahoma, Tulsa area. All species were found in my backyard.

Guest		17-Jun-2009 19:36
beautiful photos, what area??

Fletcher Wildlife Garden		27-Dec-2008 03:58
A really interesting gallery with some beautifully taken photos.

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