Serendipity Also.

I saw the empty chrysalis first,  thinking Ugh, I MISSED Lucretia. Then her orange tint flashed on the gargoyle's opposite wing. Fearing she'd take flight any moment, I ran QUICKLY into the house for my camera, and QUICKLY back to the garden.

She modeled all her gothic glory in the bright sun:



We took a trip together to the dill and pentas patch.

She flit from my finger to the spindly dill...

...showing off her monarch lady-like thick black lines:

  

The garden's dill released scent with the brush of my hand and her wing.  Dill is meant to play host plant for the black swallowtails, but they've yet to find it. So, Lucretia adopted it as a hang spot while her wings dried. 

Lucretia, being a monarch, is prone to migratory habits. But South Florida's warm March weather may keep her nearby, a member of South Florida's non-migratory "sink population" of monarchs. Or, since it's March, she could be a daughter of migratory monarchs passing through as they "wake up" from their overwinter in Mexico.

Whatever her roots, I'm thrilled she spent time in my garden and on my gargoyle.

References for this post:
Florida's 'sink population'
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw311
Monarch Spring migration:

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/spring2011/update031711.html

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