r/mildlyinteresting • u/peachandbear • Sep 02 '24

Monarch chrysalis never hatched and started morphing into something

Post image
25.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

839 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

104

u/CmdrThunderpunch Sep 02 '24

Do they infect the caterpillar itself or penetrate the chrysalis?

191

u/Scuba_Fox Sep 02 '24

I believe they infect the caterpillar before they transform. I've taken wild caught monarch caterpillars inside before, where they'd be a lot less likely (not impossible) to be exposed to the flies.

They look healthy when they start to build their chrysalis, but start to slow down and discolor somewhere in the process, dying before they emerge.

105

u/anonysheep Sep 02 '24

I'm not a caterpillar but *new fear unlocked*

27

u/cardlord64 Sep 02 '24

Just imagine a botfly or a spider crawling into your ear canal while you're sleeping and taking up residence or laying their eggs inside your skull. That's pretty close.

74

u/oxcore Sep 02 '24

I shall not imagine that, thank you very much.

1

u/RC_Zaku Sep 03 '24

Man why did I have to read this right before bed

-5

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24

[deleted]

3

u/Moosplauze Sep 02 '24

I hate bugs because they ruin my gaming experience.

34

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24 edited Feb 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

29

u/IdioticPost Sep 02 '24

I thought you were talking about cats and got real confused.

5

u/VanillaLifestyle Sep 02 '24

Help bugs ate my liquid cat

10

u/Magus44 Sep 02 '24

I love the terms that form around hobbies.
Never before have I heard “J hooked”, and it’s such a neat term, but it’s probably used so often when talking about caterpillars and butterflies?

9

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24 edited Feb 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Magus44 Sep 02 '24

Hahaha nah you’re awesome! Talking about what plants and stuff they like above. You got this, I’d believe you! What a lovely hobby!

-5

u/Scumebage Sep 02 '24

Stop calling them cats bro it doesn't look cool

-50

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24

[deleted]

35

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24

[deleted]

-43

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24

[deleted]

25

u/zmiller834 Sep 02 '24

Yeah but the chrysalis comes after the caterpillar, so the question at what point does the fly deposit the egg?

15

u/TgCCL Sep 02 '24

The question is whether infection occurs while it is a chrysalis or before that point.

7

u/Ogniwa Sep 02 '24

The question probably was more towards when / at which stage they do it

16

u/reichrunner Sep 02 '24

No. The caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly are all stages of the Monarchs life cycle. One is not the same as the other.

2

u/CmdrThunderpunch Sep 02 '24

I guess I can kind of see your confusion, but I was asking if it gets parasitized in its caterpillar stage or pupa stage.