Metamorphosis

We recently ordered some butterfly larvae from Insect Lore so that the boys could watch them transform into butterflies. Ace received the Butterfly House as a gift for Christmas and we've been saving it for Springtime. It had a certificate for 1/2 off the regular price for whatever insect we chose.

We of course read the classic childrens book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. Ace was very excited to record the different stages of the Butterfly's Life Cycle down in his nature journal. I thought this bracelet was really fun too but it's too girly for my boys. :) Now, me on the otherhand... We also colored this coloring sheet as they reached each stage.

DAY ONE
2nd stage of life cycle

The eggs are the 1st stage of the butterfly's life cycle. We didn't receive them as eggs but there is a chance the new butterflies will lay eggs and we'll get to watch the cycle all over again.

DAY THREE

They loved watching them crawl around their cup and eat their food which is the brown stuff you see in the cup. Ace is checking his nature journal to make sure his picture looks exactly like what he sees in the cup.

This is what they did every day after Ace got home from school. Lucky kept trying to touch them but Ace made sure he didn't get too close.

DAY FIVE
3rd stage of the life cycle
a.k.a. pupal stage

On day five most of them had begun to hang on the top of the paper disc located under the lid. This begins the metamorphosis of the butterfly. The chubby, hairy creature is preparing to emerge as an elegant butterfly.

DAY SEVEN

By day seven all five of the caterpillars had become chrysalis; they are completely inside of their iridescent-like cocoons. Once this happened I had to remove the paper disc that the chrysalis were on and pin it to the inside of the Butterfly House.

This one here never attached itself to the disc but was completely in it's cocoon so I carefully laid it on the floor of the Butterfly House.

DAYS ELEVEN & TWELVE
4th and Final Stage of Life Cycle

We woke up on Day 11 to find two beautiful Painted Lady butterflies flying around the Butterfly House. On Day 12, four of the five were alive and well, including the one that I laid on the floor. Only one didn't make it. It looked like the butterfly started to come out too soon because it was only half developed. Insect Lore guarantees 3 out of 5 to make it so I think we did great with 4.

We fed them orange slices or we put a carnation sprinkled with sugar water inside their house for them to drink. The red spots you see are not blood but left over liquid from the transformation that the butterflies excrete when they emerge.

DAY TWENTY-TWO

The lifespan of a butterfly is only 2-4 weeks so by Day 22 we finally convinced Ace that he either had to set them free or they were going to die. So we went outside and he carefully opened the butterfly house and removed each butterfly one by one, made a wish for it and set it free.

At first they couldn't fly very high and they kept falling into the grass but after a few tries they took off soaring through the sky! It was so beautiful!

Lucky went crazy watching them fly away! He kept pointing and screaming like, "Hey! They got loose!" :)

I forgot to put a leaf in the house for them to lay eggs on so we'll have to order more if we want to do it again. Insect Lore has several different insect you could order, I'm thinking of trying silkworms next. Ace saw this ant farm at Target for $20 that he wants to spend "his money" on but I'm still thinking about that one...