Posted in Reviews

I keep telling everyone, "This summer we're studying astronomy." 

I think I'm losing credibility. 

What we've really gotten into this summer is insects.  Lots of insects.  My camera was full of photos of insects when I had the film developed, including a huge dragonfly that we found knocked senseless after a rain storm.

I've reviewed our Antworks project and added photos recently, but this time it's butterflies. 

I thought ants were neat, but this was awe inspiring.

We ordered our "Butterfly Garden" from InsectLore, which claims to have sold over 35 million butterfly catterpillars since they started in the late '60s.  Our five caterpillars arrived in excellent shape and time, which was a relief because the weather did turn exceptionally hot the week they came.  I imagined "broiled" caterpillars when we opened the box...

This is what the caterpillars looked like just a day or so before they formed chrysalids.  We'd had them for about five days.  The waxy looking stuff in the bottom is their food - they really go through it!  We drew them, photographed them, and marvelled at how fast they went from little 3/4" caterpillars to these 2+" things in such a short period.

Exactly "on schedule," our caterpillars began forming chrysalids.  They come with a concise, but informative, pamphlet on how to care for the insects at all stages.  They should grow to form chrysalids in 7-10 days; ours began forming right at 7 days. 

We had one caterpillar that was a bit smaller than the others.  This one did everything about two days later.  This had a benefit, however. 

Once the "older" caterpillars formed their chrysalids, the leftover one kept messing with these hanging formations.  We imagined s/he was thinking, "Where did everyone go?"  When this single caterpillar touched a chrysalid, it shook and swang violently!  It was startling the first time we saw it.  This is a defense mechanism for the chrysalids, to help them avoid being eaten.

Once all the chrysalids were formed, the instructions guide you to placing them into the net "garden," which is pictured below.  One of the chyrsalids fell off before we moved it - thanks to our inquisitive younger sibling!  It survived this, being crawled over by the only child caterpillar, handling by Kate and myself, and then an accidental (short) drop into the garden.  They must be pretty hardy.

We eventually had all five of them emerge this past weekend.  The "final product" looks like this:

My daughter really enjoyed this project, and recommends it like this:

Our poor ants have taken a back seat in our interests this past week, but I think they've managed just fine...