At this point, there were seven pupae in the little tree we constructed and about a week went by. Then, one morning, this happened:

 

This was our first “baby.” We weren’t sure how to proceed: we ended up waiting a day to release it, it might have been the weather. The wings have to dry; this guy was ready to go and was very active. We gave it sugar water but it didn’t drink.

And then the time came for the ceremony. The shortened version. It was very touching to let it go. We had done our job.
My son named it Alan Shepard for the first of the seven Mercury Astronauts.

 

A few days later we woke up to the transformation of our “#2.” It was Gus Grissom!

The second butterfly, Gus Grissom, gets ready to launch.

 

This was done in slo-mo to give you an idea of the process. This little guy lingered at the door for a while, as it to say, “good-bye,” right after the video ended it zoomed off over the fence into some squash blossoms.

 

 

The third butterfly of the eight that were now in the cage, greeted us one morning, soon after we released the second.
It was John Glenn!

 

Each butterfly has slightly different markings. Some more yellow (males) some more blue (females).

We were getting good at the process and let this little guy out. He took the same path as #2, over the fence and into the squash blossoms.

 

There are five pupae still in the tree and they likely won’t emerge before next spring. Something must have told them it is too late in the season. And yet, we’ve had so many warm days here in New York City. But, nature knows.

 

©SusanKalish iPhone XS max/Moment Macro lens or Camera+2 app macro setting