Photo caption: Galaxy, a newly formed, healthy monarch chrysalis, hangs from the lid of her enclosure after completing her transformation on August 11, 2026. The chrysalis will continue hardening as its yellow markings turn gold. Galaxy is expected to emerge as a butterfly in approximately two weeks. Eight additional monarch caterpillars remain in care and are preparing for their own transformations.
Photo and video by Lisa Loucks-Christenson. © 2026 Lisa Loucks-Christenson. All rights reserved.
Galaxy’s Gold Crown: A Monarch Transformation in Real Time
By Lisa Loucks-Christenson
Rochester Sun Times | Lisa Loucks-Christenson Publishing
August 11, 2026
For most of the night, I checked on Galaxy.
At 7 a.m., I began photographing and filming her again. She was hanging upside down in the familiar J-position, her body preparing for the final transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis.
Then her body dropped straight down from the J.
I knew we were only minutes away.
What followed was one of the most remarkable moments I have witnessed in my monarch documentation. Galaxy’s lime-green chrysalis began squeezing out of the caterpillar skin. The old skin split, the new body emerged, and the chrysalis secured itself beneath the enclosure lid.
The hook-like structure that anchors the chrysalis to its silk pad is called the cremaster.
By approximately 11:15 a.m., Galaxy had completed the transformation. Her newly formed chrysalis hung from the lid, covered in delicate yellow markings that will deepen into gold as the chrysalis hardens.
The process was fragile. Galaxy remained vulnerable while her new form strengthened, so I taped the enclosure lid to prevent unnecessary movement. She had also produced a remarkable amount of silk, giving me no reason to believe she was at risk of becoming detached.
I filmed and photographed the transformation from multiple angles. I captured micro close-ups for the book, full-length footage from a 3/4 view, still photographs, color images, black-and-white images, and over two thousand photographs and video clips in all.
Eventually, I will bring this footage together with the rest of my monarch coverage, Galaxy’s story, and the books that have grown from this journey.
It has been almost eleven months since Dolly emerged. Watching Galaxy transform brought back the wonder of that earlier moment, but it also allowed me to notice details I had missed before—the old skin being pushed away, the fluid involved in the transformation, and the incredible shift from yellow-and-black caterpillar to lime-green chrysalis.
The yellow dots will become gold. In approximately two weeks, Galaxy is expected to emerge as a butterfly.
I sometimes call Galaxy “she,” although the sex is not yet known. For now, Galaxy is simply Galaxy—the first of the nine survivors to reach the chrysalis stage.
Eight more monarch caterpillars remain.
Earth may be next. Noodle, the youngest, is expected to begin his transformation around the time Galaxy emerges. One monarch will be opening its wings while another begins the hidden work of becoming.
That timing feels like the heart of this story.
The transformation does not begin when the wings appear. It begins while the wings are still unseen.
That is what these nine monarchs continue to teach me:
Faith comes before wings.
#NINE, #FaithBeforeWings, #GalaxyTheMonarch, #MonarchButterflies, #MonarchCaterpillars, #ButterflyConservation, #NatureDocumentary, #WildlifePhotography, #EnvironmentalStorytelling, #FaithInAction, #GodsGrace, #TrueLifeStory, #LisaLoucksChristenson
Author bio
Lisa Loucks-Christenson is an investigative journalist, author, illustrator, documentary filmmaker, and environmental storyteller. Through writing, photography, field documentaries, and personal observation, she explores wildlife, faith, survival, and the fragile connections between people and the natural world.
She is the creator of the monarch collection TRIO OF MONARCHS, Dolly: The Caterpillar I Knew Inside the Butterfly, and NINE: My Mistakes, His Grace. Her related children’s environmental-awareness title, Valentine & Allie: Tending Monarchs, is being developed through Story Antics® AU and Story Antics™ USA.