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i got out of bed 10am this morning and already missed the show: bruce's monarch butterfly had emerged from her chrysalis overnight and was drying herself on the jar lid. fortunately i had the foresight to set up the lid last night just in case the butterfly did emerge, so it wouldn't be trapped inside the jar.

the monarch was pretty active, as it was crawling all over the lid (top and bottom), which meant it probably emerged hours ago (note to self: maybe for the next chrysalis set up a time lapse camera to capture the eclosion. but her wings were still wet and she hadn't dried yet. i let her crawl on my hand and gently put her outside on a rhododendron bush, so that after she finished drying she could fly away. i thought it was ironic that after spending a month raising monarch caterpillars, the first butterfly i see wouldn't be my own but one of bruce's. still, it's like having a bonus monarch, and you can never have too much. i was also glad to see that the butterfly was a female, based on the observation of the special cleft on the developing chrysalis.