On Day 8, the larvae began hanging from the lid of their jar and encasing themselves in cocoons. Today was Day 10 and we transferred the little buggers to their Butterfly Habitat.
At this point, one of the chrysalids became disturbed and began twitching violent. It was surprisingly strong. And I had a visceral reaction of fear and disgust, which I tried to hide from the children as I quickly asked Aunt Stella to take over the transferring project.
She was able to pin the paper disc to the side of the habitat as instructed. The chrysalis in question stopped twitching and throbbing perhaps 10 minutes later: we hope it is alive and resting peacefully instead of, well, resting in peace . . .
The butterflies should emerge in about five to eight days from now, so stay tuned!
On Day 8, the larvae began hanging from the lid of their jar and encasing themselves in cocoons. Today was Day 10 and we transferred the little buggers to their Butterfly Habitat.
At this point, one of the chrysalids became disturbed and began twitching violent. It was surprisingly strong. And I had a visceral reaction of fear and disgust, which I tried to hide from the children as I quickly asked Aunt Stella to take over the transferring project.
She was able to pin the paper disc to the side of the habitat as instructed. The chrysalis in question stopped twitching and throbbing perhaps 10 minutes later: we hope it is alive and resting peacefully instead of, well, resting in peace . . .
The butterflies should emerge in about five to eight days from now, so stay tuned!
what type of butterflies will these be?? Growing up we use to collect monarch caterpillars and watch them spin their chrysalis'.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure John and Mary are enjoying this.
Oh, very cool! We did a DIY version last year & will do it again when we notice caterpillars in the garden. What food did you feed these larvae? What butterflies will they become?
ReplyDeleteThese will become Painted Lady butterflies. When we ordered the larvae, they came in a jar whose floor was covered with some kind of food. It looked like brown wax.
ReplyDelete