The "Armchair Cocoon" Opens Up

When you encourage butterflies to lay eggs in your yard, you get a lot of caterpillars crawling around.
Now and then they choose odd places to spin their cocoons.
Such is the case of the one in the following photo:So for the last two or three weeks since I spotted that cocoon, I've been watching to see when it would open up.

Today was the day.
Unfortunately the butterfly was awake this morning a lot earlier than I was, so I missed the stages leading up to this image.

But there you have it - the "Armchair Cocoon" opened up to reveal a shiny, perfect, brand new Gulf Fritillary.