Caterpillars, chrysalids and a blimp

Here are some more caterpillar pictures. It was hard to get really good pictures of them inside the little cup.

This picture sort of shows the caterpillars crawling up the sides. After a while, the side of the cup started to look pretty gross, with the frass that was stuck there. There was also webbing throughout the cup.

I put a paper towel behind the cup in hopes that you could see the chrysalids a bit better. In this picture 4 out of 5 of them were starting to form. Number 5 was finally at the top, but stretched out, not in position yet.

Here they are, all 5 after I transferred them to the habitat. The whole time I was doing that, Maggie and Cassie were watching me closely "Be careful Mama, be careful. Careful Mama....careful" "I am being careful girls" "Be careful.....mama, be careful" "Girls, that is making me more nervous, stop saying that" "Oh, okay." Silence for a half of a second. "Careful Mama...."

They are pinned nearer the bottom per the instructions. And now we wait for butterflies to emerge. (about 7 days or so)

On Saturday Lino and I were out prepping the shutters and porch railings to be painted. The kids and I had gone out back while the neighbor girl and her mom were over when Maggie started shouting to look up:

It was a Good Year blimp. It was moving kind of quickly, I wish I had put the zoom lens on though.

Caterpillar watch!

Well 4 of the caterpillars have formed their chrysalids. The 5th one will probably have its made by end of day today. I have to get the pictures on to the computer. They aren't the greatest, I didn't want to disrupt the caterpillars.

I am completely fascinated by the whole thing though. Lino keeps making fun of me for it. I am just amazed that they knew they had to go to the top of the little cup and hang upside down and curl their little heads up.

The first one to do it seemed to be the leader, got right down to business from the beginning. The next 2 followed pretty quickly. Numbers 4 and 5 really had me worried. They would sort of go to the top and bug the others, then just hang out on the side of the cup. (at one point, I thought #5 wasn't going to make it, he had gone back to the bottom with all the yucky webbing and frass...)

Lino figured #5 is just a late bloomer. By last night 4 had already been hanging upside down for a while and I could see his outer shell (?) starting. By 11 o'clock or so 5 had finally gotten in position--phew. (It reminds me of the movie Multiplicity--copies of a copy....)

The next step will be to somehow transfer them from the cup to the habitat--I should be able to get some better pictures then.

Caterpillar watch

The caterpillars have been pretty active. Yesterday they were moving up and down the sides of the cup. Very exciting.

Not the best pictures, but you can kind of see the webbing that they are making.

There are 5 caterpillars, and 3 hang out on one side and 2 hang out on the other.

The kids are anxiously waiting for them to make their chrysalids.

You've got mail!

We got a small box in the mail yesterday, and the kids were very excited about it!

The box says live butterflies, but it had in it five Painted Lady caterpillars, and everything the caterpillars need to grow into butterflies.

It isn't the best picture, but those black things are the caterpillars. According to the little paper that came with them, they spin silk to move more easily and protect them. (I never knew that) Also according to the paper we will notice little green balls of frass starting to accumulate. What is frass you ask? Caterpillar poop.

So now we wait, approximately 7-10 days for them to start the change into chrysalids. The kids have been asking every hour if they are butterflies yet. That won't happen until about 7-10 days after they make their chrysalids.

Why are we raising caterpillars? Well, a few month ago the kids received a box in the mail from my cousin, and it had this in it. (We waited until it warmed up to send for them!) It is from Insect Lore

It should be neat. When Lino and I got married, we released butterflies after the service. We ordered 100 of them from Butterfly Celebration . They came to us already in the chrysalid stage and we had to put them in cute little boxes and wait for them to hatch. Which, conveniently enough happened 2 days before the wedding!