Did you know that the thing that hardens around the caterpillar isn't a cocoon? I didn't! I became a bit of a caterpillar expert (I seriously looked up and read so much about them!) It's actually called a chrysalis. We have two children's books about caterpillars changing into butterflies and both of those books call it a cocoon so we decided not to confuse Dawson and we also called it a cocoon. Cocoon is easier to say, too. Anyway, I've always known it as a cocoon so until we teach Dawson what it's really called (when he's like 6) I'm going to continue calling it a cocoon.
Here are all 5 caterpillars in their cocoons. I watched the last caterpillar hang himself upside down and it was pretty cool!
After the caterpillars had been in their cocoons for a couple of days we took the lid off the little cup that they came in and took off this little paper disc that was attached to the lid. The caterpillars were attached to it. We pinned the paper disc to the side of the mesh butterfly garden that we got. That way they'd have a lot more room when they emerged as butterflies!
I like this picture that I got. Two of the butterflies had already emerged, what I like about the picture is you can see the orange of the butterfly's wing that is still in the cocoon.
We missed the first two coming out of their cocoons, it happens so fast! We were determined to see at least one of them emerge so we had our eyes on them all day! I saw one start to shake around a little bit so I called Dave and Dawson over and sure enough a little butterfly was coming out! It was really neat to see!! Dawson was really excited. I also watched the 4th and 5th ones emerge. I was holding Ashlynn up to see the last one and she seemed really fascinated by it. I was really surprised about how interested in the butterflies she was. Once every hour or so she would stand next to the butterfly garden and want us to pick her up so she could see them.
Here is one of our Painted Lady butterflies!
We kept the butterflies in our butterfly garden for two or three days and then we decided it was time to let them go. We let them go one at a time and let each of the kids let one go. Dawson didn't want to touch it, he pulled away at the last second. haha
Ashlynn wanted to hold one, though! She wasn't scared at all!
One of the butterflies couldn't fly. I'm not sure if his wings didn't form correctly or what. I had Dave put him on one of our potted flower plants so he would have plenty of food without having to search for it. Then later that night I started feeling sorry for him so I made Dave go get him and we put him back in the butterfly garden and gave him some fresh watermelon. Painted Ladies only live 2-4 weeks so we decided just to keep him inside.
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