The not-so-glamourous phase of the life of a painted lady butterfly is nonetheless rather interesting. The inspiration for this post came from another post I read earlier this week in the Ultimate Blog Challenge Group. Thanks Kimberly for your post in the “Agreeable Tiger Moth”
A few weeks ago my granddaughter was given a special birthday present. It was given to her by a teacher friend who has been anxiously waiting for all of the stars to align. The first alignment was to wait for the eggs to be ready. Have I caught your interest yet?
The eggs were butterfly eggs. They were prepared in a kit with a jar of food solution at the bottom. Over the period of 10 days, the eggs produced caterpillars which thrived on the food and grew day by day. Then they began spinning a cocoon. Instinctively, they climbed to the top of the jar and attached themselves to the lid of the jar. This is a very critical time. The jar must not be moved or tapped during the first few days of this pupa or chrysalis stage. They are alive after all. Just turn up the volume and listen. 😉
After four days the jar lid is removed and placed in a cylindrical net aviary until the butterfly is ready to emerge from the chrysalis. Not long after, the butterflies break out and climb up the side of the net to let their wings dry and expand.
The first butterfly emerged in my daughter’s home office. Sounds from within the aviary attracted the cat’s attention who started making sounds of her own and pushed her nose up to the side of the net. My daughter grabbed her cell phone and recorded a video.
The best part is to take the net outside and release the butterflies. My granddaughter named each one with a name that began with “B” and release them near a butterfly bush in the garden. Bye bye butterfly.
– Where do you want to go today? –
Video credits to my wonderful and very capable daughter, Heather. Photocredit to pexelc-jürgen of Pexels.com
Doug, wowie! Thanks for the kit idea and the amazing videos. The cat watching the unfolding butterflies should end up viral on one of Jukin Media’s channels. Wowie!
I think they will do it again.
What a neat experience!
So cool!
That cat!
When our boys were small we did several butterfly starts—they’d always come out and surprise us!
I enjoyed this!
Blessings,
Laurie
There are two cats and they were sitting side by side watching the aviary like two kids watching cartoons on TV.
Wow, that’s cool. At the Relay for Life event here in Grand Island, there was a butterfly release with painted lady butterflies. It was really something to see!
There are more butterflies in the backyard now, they must have found some friends and brought them back home.
Your granddaughter must have loved watching the different stages! Lia got a Paint d Lady kit a few years ago and she released then in her garden around her birthday. It was so much fun watching her with them.
My daughter baked some cupcakes and decorated them with butterflies to celebrate the big release. That could be a project for Lia when she thinks about doing it again.