Butterflies

Butterflies have always been a favorite insect around here. Especially since Erin's spring obsession with caterpillars. We even had a caterpillar make a chrysalis in our jar, although nothing came of it.

Before being aware of Erin's butterfly fascination her Noni got her a butterfly "house" that came with an order for live caterpillars. So on Erin's birthday we opened up her butterfly house and sent away for the caterpillars. In waiting Erin kept bringing caterpillars from the yard into the house wanting to put them in her butterfly net.

The caterpillars arrived in small plastic specimen-cup. They were about 1/2 inch long. There was some nutrient on the bottom of the cup so we didn't have to do anything but watch them grow. And grow they did. After 3 or 4 days they had doubled in size. They looked the size of your garden variety caterpillars. After about 10 or so days they all climbed to the top of the cups and made their chrysalis. I'd never really watched it happen but over the period of a day they went from mobile caterpillars to hardened chrysalis.

The top of the cups were lined with paper so after making sure they were securely enveloped in the chrysalis we moved them into the butterfly "house". This meant taking the paper top they had clung to and pining it to the inside of the house. We cleaned off a corner of the piano and set the house where we could watch inside without disturbing too much.

Four mornings later we awoke to find 1 lone butterfly sitting at the bottom of the house. By mid afternoon we had 4. By the end of the next day all 10 butterflies had emerged. The kids are fascinated with watching them. They are painted ladies and have a beautiful orange and black pattern to them. Jeffrey loves to bring a chair up to the piano and just stand and watch them. At this point they are fluttering all around the house. We've put some orange slices on the bottom to feed them and they seem to like it.

We've been really lucky that the cats haven't knocked the whole thing over. That was my greatest fear when looking for a place to put it. I've found both cats stalking the butterflies a few times but never being aggressive in trying to get to them.

So here are a few pictures of our little science experiment. The net to the house makes it pretty difficult to get really good pictures but these give you an idea. The red stains you see on the net are the meiconium which is secreted just after the butterflies emerge. It's just been so much fun to watch the change from caterpillar to butterfly happen right in front of our eyes.