Metamorphosis Missed

Do you all remember our cute little caterpillars? They are now gorgeous Painted Lady Butterflies. They are also free. We let them free this morning, much to The Girl's dismay. She actually cried a little. I guess she thought we were keeping them as pets. I should have taken more initiative with explaining the whole process to her. I thought she would have remembered from the last time.

Not so much.

After the first one took flight though, she saw how beautiful they are out of their plastic cage and decided it was for the best. She quickly asked, "What if a bird swoops down and eats it?" I didn't know what to say to her because, the truth, well it would have broken her little heart. So I just stood their with a dumb look on my face and told her I thought they would be OK and we would have to make sure, each time we were outside, to look for them. Our little booklet said that they would hang around our area for a few days. She felt pretty good about that.

If we don't see any butterflies in the next few days, I will be writing that company to tell them how they destroyed my baby.

(As I type we are currently in the middle of a hail storm. I wonder what that means for a newly freed butterfly? I hope they have some sort of instinctual thing going on that saves them.)

Here are some pics of the journey we had these past few weeks with Chasey, Lacy, Happy, George, and Blossom:

After they first arrived at our home, they crawled around, ate a ton, and grew very large. Then about 24 hours before they turn into a chrysalis (which is the most amazing thing I have watched), they crawl up to the top of their cage and hang up side down in little "J's".






Then after hanging very still for about a day, they start to wiggle around again while still hanging upside down. Then right in front of your eyes (if you are so lucky to be around to watch) they turn into a chrysalis. It takes all of about 45 seconds. It is so weird, yet so cool and amazing all at once. We happened to be around to see 4 of the 5 caterpillars turn into chrysalises. Here's a picture of one halfway done:

You can see at the bottom of the caterpillar the hard casing forming.

Here they are, all five as chrysalises:


After they were all in cocoons, we had to transfer them from their sterile cup to a not so sterile butterfly garden. It is a big plastic container with some very real looking foliage and an even more real looking Aztec Temple. I am positive, when they hatched, they thought the were in a Central American rain forest.



Aren't those mountains stunning?


Next, comes the hard part. We waited. For 7 days, nothing. At least nothing we could see. Then, 2 mornings ago we woke up and one of the chrysalis was much darker. This is a good sign that the butterfly is about to hatch from it's chrysalis. So we waited some more hoping that we would catch the birth of a butterfly.

Not so much.

It happened in the middle of the night, so we missed it. We were a little disappointed, but we had 4 more. Surely we would catch one of them. They too were all very dark. We decided to stay home all morning so we wouldn't miss it.

Our first butterfly:


Here's Delanie determined not to miss a thing:


Of course we had to make a run to Super T. It was only going to be for a quick short minute.

I am sure I don't even have to tell you what happened while we were gone.

So, there were three left. I was bound and determined not to miss them all:
People, I even took the bugs to bed with me!

Hey, it was getting late, and I just knew the second I turned my head to go do something, I would miss it.

So I was up until 11 pm. For all of you that know me, I don't do 11pm very well. Especially when I have to be up the next day with kids who don't care what time I was up at. They just want breakfast.

I fell asleep, and I am sure as soon as my little eyelids drifted off, all three butterflies were born.

When I woke up, I saw this:


And this:


UGGGG!

Oh well. It's hard to be a butterfly mom.

Lastly, there was freedom. For some reason, I really thought that once the lid came off of their cage, they would burst forth and fly freely all at once.

Not so much.

They stayed put for a good hour. Then 1 came out and he flew to the chair right next to the cage and hung out a bit longer. It wasn't until late this afternoon/early evening that they were all five gone.

It sure was fun. We'll do it again next year. The Girl wants to do it again next week...I need to catch up on some missed sleep first.

Delanie and Pax waiting for the butterflies to free themselves:


Here's a close up of Lacy...or is it Chasey? No, it's definitely George...Yup, that's Happy.


Farewell, Blossom!