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Although I waited expectantly to see the monarch butterfly emerge, I did not maintain a constant watch.  I thought that the butterfly would exit the chrysalis slowly, so I sat by the chrysalis and read, only looking up every couple of minutes to see if anything had changed.

The monarch chrysalis eight minutes before the butterfly emerged.

I did not notice any change until mid-morning, when I looked up to find that the chrysalis was puckered open near the bottom.  As I grabbed up my camera, I was shocked to see the chrysalis suddenly split open, spilling the butterfly out.

The monarch butterfly tumbling out of the chrysalis.

In contrast to what I had expected, the butterfly was out of the chrysalis in mere seconds.  It was the expansion and drying of the butterfly's wings that took considerably longer.  At first, the butterfly's wings were notably shorter than its abdomen.  However, over the next twenty minutes, the wings lengthened at an almost visible pace.

The monarch butterfly 0, 9, and 19 minutes after emerging.

By the end of the morning, the butterfly was making very short flights in the limited space of its enclosure.  However, since a storm was approaching, we decided to postpone the butterfly's release until the next day.  To be continued...