Scroll down to see updates for our caterpillars!
Day 1
Our caterpillars arrived today! The date is April 4, 2020. They came in this cup with a lid with holes poked in the top and plenty of food inside. There are five caterpillars. They aren't moving around very much yet. They are still recovering from their bumpy ride. The card that came with them tells me they will grow into Painted Lady butterflies. They are very small!
Day 2
The date is April 5, 2020. The caterpillars are very active today! I can tell they have been moving around and eating! A couple of them crawled all the way to the top of the cup and back down again. They even look a little bigger today!
Day 3
Today is April 6, 2020. They are definitely getting bigger! I can tell they are moving around a lot because the food on the bottom of the cup looks more messed up today. I was able to catch this cool video of one of them eating! Check it out!
Day 4
Today is April 7, 2020. The caterpillars are still growing and getting bigger. I've noticed some stringy web starting to form along the bottom of the cup. A couple of the caterpillars were showing off their bottom sides today! I got some good pictures.
Day 7
Today is April 10. Look how much they have grown! There are very long now! You can tell they have been eating a lot. Look at how the bottom of the cup looks different today. Do you see all the stringy web-like stuff around the cup?
Day 9
Today is April 12, it's Easter! I think they caterpillars look a little fatter today! They aren't moving as quickly anymore. This is probably because they are getting bigger! Can you find all 5 caterpillars? One of them is trying to hide!
Day 11
Today is April 14. Some big changes today! Check out what the caterpillars are doing! They have been crawling around all morning getting into position. Now they are hanging from the lid of the cup!
Day 13
Today is April 16. There have been a lot of changes to our caterpillars! Four of the caterpillars are now pupa...which means they have made a chrysalis. Unfortunately, three of them fell from the top of the cup. We still have one caterpillar left that has not formed a chrysalis. So he is still a larvae (caterpillar). He is getting into position though! I'll check back later to see if he has started to change!
Day 14
Today is April 17. The last caterpillar has formed his chrysalis and is now a pupa! Later today I will take the lid off of the cup and move them to the butterfly habitat. Does anyone have any predictions about how long it will take for the butterflies to emerge? Comment below (and don't forget your name!)
Day 17
Today is April 20. Over the weekend I moved the caterpillars to the butterfly habitat. I carefully took the lid off of the cup and put it in the stand. This way when the Painted Lady butterflies emerge they can hang for a little while and dry their wings before trying to fly. I also moved the cup to the butterfly habitat. You'll notice the ones that fell down are in the bottom of the cup. I'm hoping they will still be able to develop into butterflies and emerge from their chrysalis. In all, we have 5 caterpillars that are now in the "pupa" stage! 2 hanging from the lid and 3 in the bottom of the cup!
Day 22
Today is April 25. I checked on them this morning and there was no change. I cam back around 5:30 and found one empty chrysalis shell and one butterfly! The butterfly that emerged was the last one to make his chrysalis. You can see the chrysalis shell in the pictures! I feed the butterfly with a sponge soaked in sugar water. He looks pretty lonely. I hope he will have some more butterfly friends soon!
Day 24
Today is April 27 and guess what?! We have all FIVE butterflies! Over the whole day the butterflies started to emerge! They stayed by their chrysalis shell for a while to let their wings dry. Then they started flying around a lot! They are very feisty! We continue to feed them sugar water on a sponge. Tomorrow I'm going to give them some pieces of an orange to see how they like that! I think they really want to be able to fly around more. I'm hoping for a warm day soon so we can set them free!
Day 30
It's May 3 and it is time to let our butterflies free! It's a beautiful day outside, warm and sunny. It is the perfect day to let them go. When we opened the net one of them flew off right away! The rest of them were a little reluctant to fly off but eventually made their way out of the net. Three of them flew off and two of them settled in on our lawn and in our garden. They were in the garden most of the day but were gone when I checked this evening. I got some good photos and video. I also got some close up shots of the shell leftover from the chrysalis!
