I always though that I knew
– and you were laughing alongWe had several mini projects/distractions over the summer. Early in August friends of ours were raising Monarch caterpillars – they do this every year – this year it was crazy! They have a friend who also raises them and he was going to be out of time when all the chrysalises were ready to hatch.
So, our crazy friends took over 200, amazingly jewel like, jade and gold chrysalises and hung them all over their mantlepice, bookcases and anything else with an edge.
We were lucky enough to come home with 4. We hung them outside so the butterflies would be able to fly free when they were ready and we waited.
2 days later some began to lose their jade color and they seemed to darken to black until we realized that the shell had actually become clear and the dark color we were seeing was the butterfly itself, ready to emerge. It was all pretty cool.
It was really cool to see them climb out of their little sleeping bags, their wings all crumpled up and short and their bodies short and fat as well, and to watch them slowly pump all the extra fluid from their bodies out into their wings.
They each took about 24 hours from hatching to fluttering away and we had 4 females. The males have a little black spot on their back set of wings and none of ours had that.
Hope you had a couple fluttery moments of excitement and new beginnings this summer! For more info on Monarchs you can go here. Enjoy.
Toots
Marti replied:
Wow, that’s pretty amazing. I think I watched a documentary once about Monarch migration…which is insane. They’re quite facinating.
September 2, 2009 at 10:37 am. Permalink.
melissaknits replied:
this was my favorite homeschool project. we had a ton of milkweed in our yard and we’d take them right from caterpillar to butterfly. loved it.
September 2, 2009 at 2:39 pm. Permalink.
Kevin Delaney replied:
They were talking about Monarchs on the nature show on WAMC the other week. People said they are seeing many fewer Monarchs than in past years.
September 18, 2009 at 8:53 pm. Permalink.
april32many replied:
What I love the best is that their cocoons look like they’re hanging on teeny, tiny little coat hangers…are they???
Miss you and love you…WHere’s OUR ChicKen BEtTy???
October 6, 2009 at 8:57 pm. Permalink.
Rhonda the StitchingNut replied:
Oh wow, that is super cool! I love love love butterflies. I try to plant host plants as well as the ones they like for nectar. But I never thought to get my own chrysalises. I might just do that next year.
October 10, 2009 at 6:28 pm. Permalink.
Rhonda the StitchingNut replied:
Oh I want to mention that when we lived in Winthrop we lived right on a migrating route … they’d fly over the neighbor’s house and down to our yard and up over the trees as they passed thru. I counted 2 dozen one after another one day. It was amazing to watch. I watched this happen 2 years in a row before we moved away.
October 10, 2009 at 6:31 pm. Permalink.