What Happened to Our Caterpillars? We’ve Got Chrysalises!

Our butterfly adventure has hit a new high! After 1 week and 3 days, our first caterpillar turned into a chrysalis. By 2 weeks, all four caterpillars turned to chrysalises, hanging upside-down from the top of the container. It was really neat to watch them transform. First, they would hang motionless from the top of the container, twisted rather like candy canes. Next thing we knew, they were rock-hard cases. While the caterpillars were hairy, the chrysalises were smooth and gray.

The caterpillars attached themselves to a paper sheet when they turned into chrysalises, and I attached this sheet to the top of our mesh habitat. One of our chrysalises fell to the bottom of the container as soon as he transformed and I put him on a napkin at the bottom of the habitat.

Now we wait. It will take some time for the caterpillars to turn into butterflies within the chrysalis. Our booklet estimates 7-10 days. We’ll watch them and wait patiently. The kids have really enjoyed this experiment and have learned a lot about how living things grow and change. We’re excited to watch as our beautiful butterflies emerge sometime later this month!

This Week: Butterflies and Caterpillars! (homeschoolinghelicoptermama.wordpress.com)
We’ve Got Bugs! ((Don’t Call The Exterminator)) (homeschoolinghelicoptermama.wordpress.com)
Crawlin’ Creatures Update! (homeschoolinghelicoptermama.wordpress.com)

homeschoolinghelicoptermama We're a family of 6 on a homeschooling adventure!