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The skin
splits open at the neck, and the chrysalis , which is soft and mobile at
this stage, twists and struggles to free itself. Eventually the larval
skin is pushed into a ball at the tail-end or the chrysalis, and the outer
chitinous sheath gradually hardens. In the soft stage the skin of the pupa is greenish. With increasing stiffness it turns light brown with some golden patches. Within the pupal case the fundamental physical change takes place that turns the larva into a winged adult. When the weather is warm, the pupa may mature after only 10 days and the colors of the wings can be seen through the translucent sheath. A day or two later it splits, as it just has on its lower half on the left in the picture. Mature chrysalis, skin just split |
