We watched the caterpillars climb to the top of their little cup and hang upside down from the lid, turning into chrysalides. Once they were all in their cocoons, we moved them into the habitat and waited for the butterflies to emerge.
We had a small mishap where the little paper the chrysalides were hanging from fell from the side of the habitat to the bottom, and we were worried that might have damaged/injured them. But in the end, we had 5 beautiful Painted Lady butterflies hatch!! And after a few days of feeding them sugar water and oranges, we decided they deserved a taste of freedom, so we had a little release party in the backyard, and let them go.
Here's the paper with the empty cocoons still attached. The tape was our first method of attaching it to the wall of the habitat, but when that failed, we used a bent paper-clip to pin it.
Jacks took the habitat out to the perfect spot in the middle of the backyard and got ready to open it up.
Both boys talked to the butterflies, trying to convince them to come out and give the world a try! :)
3 flew out pretty quickly, but the last 2 didn't want to leave their tasty oranges behind!
The final one took some coaxing. Jacks picked up the slice of orange she was on and she climbed right over onto his hand!
This was such a cool project! The boys got a huge kick out of checking on the butterflies' progress every day...who am I kidding, we ALL enjoyed that! Thanks so much, Aunt Beth! Great present!!
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