On the evening of the 9th day, I noticed that I could kind of see wing markings through the skin of the pupa, which meant that the hatching was imminent. A member of the butterly lab at the Peggy Notabaert Nature Museum told me that the butterflies tend to hatch early in the morning. I sure was hoping that I would be around to witness the event. And I was worried that the butterfly might damage its wings in the jar.

I woke up early the next morning only to find a fully formed beautiful black swallowtail butterly in the jar. I have no idea when it hatched so I figured it was better to let it go as soon as possible. After I helped it out of the jar, it wandered around a bit on my deck, somewhat disoriented. And then it just took off, flying high, and quickly disappeared from sight.

Seeing such a beautiful creature, if only for a few minutes, and participating in its existence, is very satisfying.