Butterflies? Not yet!

We have been enjoying a fun science "observation" experiment with butterfly larvae. We got them in the mail about a week ago and watched them eat themselves into big, fat worms!

They spun lots of silk in their little food cup, and it was amazing to see how much they visibly grew from one day to the next! The kids all really enjoyed watching them, although it said in the instructions NOT to remove them from their food cup b/c it was sterile environment. It would have been fun to hold one too, but maybe another time. :)




The next thing they do is the most bizarre...on Monday morning we woke up to find one of the five worms hanging upside down, and throughout the day the rest followed suit. This is the beginning of the pupal stage. They just hang there, very still...but every once in a while they quiver. That's their defense mechanism to ward off predators!





Finally, they all turned into chrysalids. It's a quick process, to go from caterpillar to chrysalid once they are hanging upside down. We kept watching, but the next time one of us would walk through the room, another one would have changed! Finally we set up a "vigil" of sorts, where someone was always watching. And finally we were rewarded by getting to actually watch the amazing change from a fuzzy caterpillar hanging upside down, to that iridescent chrysalid. The caterpillar's skin actually starts to split, and it sheds that skin UPward by quivering until it reaches the top. Very amazing...God has created many incredible creatures, but this has to be one of the most fun to actually watch!



Stay tuned...in about a week we should have some Painted Lady butterflies! :) You can order your own butterfly larvae from Insect Lore.