Most of times butterfly/moth instar larva pupate happen at night, it’s hard to observate. But sometimes they happen during daytime. Mostly butterfly keepers watch instar larva pupate much easiler than natural observaters.
I haven’t ever had chance to watch, they are happen to quickly.
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My kids and I used to raise Monarchs (before I knew that it’s not a great idea), and I LOVED watching them pupate. It was so weird that they could shed their skin and be a different shape underneath!
Here’s a video of one of mine.
I watched a monarch caterpillar pupate and it was both slightly gross and absolutely incredible. Monarch caterpillars shed their skin and the green chrysalis is literally goopy for a bit until it hardens….between that and how they emerge from the chrysalis and then literally have to inflate their wings….it’s amazing. Also shows how vulnerable they are in those periods of time.
One of these days I will upload my monarch life stage photos…..
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I’m a little out of control, to be honest. I’ve raised 65 Chequered Swallowtails so far this Australian summer in an effort to understand what environmental factors control pupal colour. Right now, I’m watching two green pupae slowly turn brown after pupating an hour ago. A surprising observation is that the larvae don’t seem to detect coloured paper placed on the other side of a plastic container wall. Unlike some Northern Hemisphere species, they also don’t seem to be affected by texture (at least in the form of 100-grit sandpaper 
).
P. S. Annotating mistletoe observations is a great way to pass the time while waiting for pupation to occur.
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I do not raise anything, only observe whatever butterflies are near me, but this has provided me many chances to see the perilous life cycle of butterflies and realize how very few of them make it to butterflies.
I have had the opportunity to observe pupation and I brought it here for discussion because I wasn’t sure what was considered the starting moment in terms of an Observation.
(This one, sadly, I missed the moment of pupation.)
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(I’m just here to say you’re cracking me up… mistletoe count keeps rising!)
Haha, it’s like writing for SEO, trying to add the word “mistletoe” to every post. 
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I am enjoying how committed you are to this word count.
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Could I expand it to at least cover Loranthaceae? Or should I just keep writing my book?
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I say pupation has commenced when the outer skin splits and starts to be shed. This process can take as little as a couple of minutes.
I’ve uploaded an observation of a Pale Triangle pupating so you can see the process. I call it a pupa from shot 3 onwards.
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Those are great photos!
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Thanks! I was really lucky to catch the process from the start.
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This author raise so many Common Mormon Swallowtail.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1F3411n7JN/