Here is how teeny weeny the little caterpillars arrived. I actually wondered if they forgot to put them in the cup because I couldn't really see them at first. The caterpillars lived in this cup for about 2 weeks and grew to be almost 2 inches long each. Sydney and I checked on their progress every day and she once said "my caterpillars should be so proud of themselves! They are getting so big!" I should have taken a picture at this stage, but it was pretty disgusting. Caterpillar poop was everywhere.
Finally the caterpillars made their last trek to the top of their cup and made their chrysalises. I then had to carefully remove the lid and the paper they were attached to and safety pin it to the side of the butterfly garden cage. This was very scary for me since the butterflies didn't seem to be attached too well to the lid. Two of them had already fallen off and we had to put them on a napkin at the bottom of the cage.
The butterflies remained in their chrysalises for 10 days and we had just about given up hope that they were ever going to come out. The instructions said it would take 7-10 days so ours were late bloomers. But when I checked on them today their was an empty shell of a chrysalis and a beautiful painted lady butterfly. I so wanted to see one of them actually emerge from their chrysalis, but 4 out of the 5 have come out and I've missed them all. They must do it very quickly. I left them for about 10 minutes this afternoon and a new one was out when I got back.
This one posed for me quite nicely. They haven't moved around much today or opened their wings to show off their colors, so I was happy to get this picture.
So far this is the only one who has discovered food. We put fresh flowers on the bottom of the cage and squirted sugar water onto them.
The sad thing about this all is that we ordered them in the winter and won't likely be able to release them before their lifetime is up. It's still too cold outside. Pretty sad existence for the butterflies I think, and I have five more things to remember to feed around here. So if we do this again I will be sure to wait until it's warm enough to set them free outside, but it's still been a pretty fun experience.
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10 comments:
That is so great! I haven't heard of insectlore.com...I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the great gift idea.
What a fun gift, especially for Sydney's age. I'll have to remember that in a few years.
I say you let the butterfly loose in the house and see who wins; natures time clock, or the cats. Then you can teach kids about Darwinism.
I love it! (Except for the caterpillar poop.) I'll have to get some for my daughter.
That's crazy cool. I didn't know such a thing existed. Jason wanted an ant farm a year or two ago...I guess this is just the flying version. Very cool
I actually bought a similar thing to give my kids for Easter this year. Now I'm really excited about it.
That sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe I will do something like that with my boys this spring. Great idea.
this is so fun, what a great idea! i knew that the kids have done similar things in school with a giant version hanging in the middle of their classroom - but never thought of it a smaller scale for home learning. you're the funnest parents! and somethings freaking me out - caterpillar poop? really?
That's awesome! I will have to do that this summer!
I actually have done this before with my first graders that I taught. My mother-in-law had bought the kit and did the same thing with her second graders! Kids love it and it is pretty amazing to watch the whole process! What a great gift!
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