Saturday, September 24, 2011

Butterfly Project


A birthday project

One of the presents R got for his birthday this year was a butterfly habitat and larvae from Insect Lore.  It's a pretty neat project - you order the larvae from the website and they mail them to you in a little cup with "food" goo in the bottom.  When the caterpillars arrive they hardly move at all, but they grow amazingly fast and a few days later they crawl up to the top of the cup and form chrysali, which hatch inside a mesh habitat. 

The butterflies were really pretty when they hatched.  Our cat didn't like them and I was really anxious that they weren't eating, or I would have kept them hanging in our kitchen.  We took them to our community garden plot and R released them.  Periodically he reminds me that our butterflies went up in the sky to look for flowers to eat.

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Caterpillars suspended from the top of their cup

R carrying the butterfly habitat
Ready to be released

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