When the caterpillars first arrived they were about the size of ants! I've never seen caterpillars so tiny before - quite a shock to know that we look around us all the time but perhaps never really see what is right in front of our faces! I foolishly didn't take any photos of them on the first day, the picture below was taken on the Monday, 2 days after arrival, and they'd doubled in size!
They are encased in a small plastic tub with a fudge-like substance in the bottom. The 'fudge' is their food and for a while they graze gently on it.
Eventually they get quite big and if you took a look at the state of the fudge you'd think they were almost almost frenzied about their eating! The 'fudge' ended up smeared everywhere. I have to admit I was quite glad our cute little caterpillars were encased at this stage as they weren't quite so cute and looked more like slugs than would-be butterflies
After about a week of eating they cocooned at the top of the jar, and after leaving them for 24 hours to ensure they'd hardened off, I moved them to their new home (completely forgetting that they should only be 4cm off the ground - oops!)
A week or so after they cocooned they emerged as beautiful butterflies which we kept and watched for 2 days, during which time our beautiful but rather stupid cat decided to jump up on top of their (folding) home and flattened it - luckily the butterflies all seemed to be ok!
Letting them go was bitter-sweet. I found I'd got quite attached to the little things and had this whole 'proud mum' thing going on. It felt wonderful to have them come out and sit on fingers before they finally flew off.
One even sat on the emerging 'butterfly tree' we had bough especially for them in the hope they may stick around for a while - which of course they didn't. The last little one to come out fluttered to the ground rather than up in the air. Turned out she had something wrong with her wing and couldn't fly so I scooped her off, put plenty of fresh flowers and sugar water on tissue paper in the netting 'cage' and kept her for almost a week until she died, presumably of old age - I'm sad that she didn't get to go free but hope that the life she did have was a happy one.
Mona, the Painted Lady
My minded children worked hard and made a fabulous display to go with our theme. I'm very very proud of them. Some of the children who contributed to this are as young as two, the oldest was 4. I 'drew' the outline for the caterpillars in PVA and the LOs popped the red lentils on to make their caterpillars. They were so careful not to smudge the glue and worked very carefully and quietly until they were satisfied with the outcome. The butterflies flutter in the breeze when the door is open which brings their display 'to life'.
Wonder what we'll do next...
0 comments:
Post a Comment