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Hello,
I've added a link to a photo of some painted lady chrysalis's that I have. This is the first time I have ever had butterflies so I'm a little bit new to the whole situation. They have been like this for 13 days now and I just wanted to make sure that they weren't dead because I was told that they should take about 7-10 days to hatch. They are currently outside in a shaded area and the temperatures about 10 c, they have only been outside for the past 2 days. I have no idea what they should look like at this stage so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hi and welcome to UK Butterflies

All of those chrysalises look absolutely fine. It can take up to 2 weeks for the adults of this species to emerge, but longer if they are kept in cool conditions. Keep them in a warm place (but out of direct sunlight) and mist them with pure water every few days and they should emerge soon. Look out for colour changes which precede emergence.

You can see more information on Painted Lady here:
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species. ... ies=cardui

Vince

Oh thank you for the advice! as long as they are all ok, I was beginning to worry that they wouldn't hatch- but I cant wait to see them when they do

Thanks again!

Best to suspend them so that they are hanging in a natural way. If you have some of their original silk attached to their cremasters, ( little hooks at the tail end ) that can be embedded into a small blob of UHU adhesive.

If you cannot do that, make sure there are a few twigs which the freshly emerged insects can climb up and suspend so they can successfully 'pump up' and expand their wings hydraulically and properly.

Otherwise there is the possibility that they will not be able to expand their wings properly and a crippled insect will be the disappointing result.

Although I have witnessed this emergence from the pupa or chrysalis process many many times, I never tire of seeing it again and again.

Good luck.

That's great thank you! I will do that now and I will make sure to put some twigs and stuff in.

Thanks again