Several weeks ago Lily and I were talking about how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Lily remembered about the life cycle of a butterfly from one of the classes we took at the state park last fall.
Lily saw a caterpillar and was explaining to me how this "thing that looked like a worm" would someday become a beautiful butterfly. Lily is fascinated by that entire process. As a matter of fact, so am I!
I asked Lily if she would be interested in trying to "raise" some butterflies. After I convinced Lily that it actually was possible she jumped at the chance! I got online and ordered some Painted Lady Butterflies from Carolina Biological Supply Company.
We received the package containing 5 butterfly larva on May 19. Lily was so excited. I think she thought butterflies were going to come flying out of the box once we opened it!
Over the next week the larvae grew and grew. Lily enjoyed checking on them several times a day and reporting in on their progress. Here's what the larvae looked like on May 24th.
Well, sure enough, each of the larvae formed a chrysalis attached to the paper at the top of the "rearing chamber" just like the instructions said they would. After not disturbing the chrysalides for 2 days (as instructed) we relocated them to their "butterfly sanctuary" on May 28th.
Once we transferred the chrysalides to the butterfly sanctuary they all started vibrating and shaking in unison. It was really kinda creepy. There wasn't anything in the literature about this happening so I looked it up online. How did we live before the Internet??? Apparently, this is a defense mechanism to protect the chrysalides from birds. Hmm...how do you think they knew we were Parrotts???
Well...guess what happened today??? Yep. You guessed it. We are now the proud "parents" of a butterfly named Lizzie.
I can't begin to tell you how excited Lily is. She literally hopped and danced all around the room. It was incredibly cute.
After Lily's feet finally came back to Earth she couldn't wait to call Daddy, Dad Dad, Aunt BaBa, and Aunt Patti to tell them all the exciting news about our newest family member.
When Mary Beth asked Lily what the butterfly's name was Lily thought for a second and said, "Lizzie. They will all be named Lizzie."
And there you have it. The life cycle of Lizzie the Painted Lady Butterfly.
1 comment:
How exciting. Lizzie has no idea how lucky she is to have a "mother" like Lil! Aunt Patti wishes she could have seen Lizzie before she was released into the wild!
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