Butterfly Saga

Last spring, I purchased a butterfly habitat for the kids. It looks like a little pop-up hamper with a top on it and comes with an envelope so you can send away for some caterpillars whenever you're ready for them. We finally sent away for them and a couple weeks ago, received 5 tiny little caterpillars in a little cup. We were instructed NOT to open the cup---there was enough food for all 5 caterpillars to eat and grow inside that cup. And grow they did! It became dirty and cramped for them in the cup, but sure enough, all 5 of them wound cocoons, attaching them to the top of the cup. Our next order of business was to take the top off the cup, carefully take a paper film (that the cocoons were attached to) and pin it inside the butterfly habitat. We did this, and were all excited for the day when the butterflies would emerge from their cocoons.

This is where the drama begins. The kids were told not to touch the butterfly "house". They could look at it all they wanted, but they were told not to move it or carry it around. So, I was quite surprised last week to find the butterfly habitat MISSING from the counter where it had been placed. I started looking around the house and, of course, found it laying on it's side in the playroom. I breathed a sigh of relief only to realize that trauma had occurred to the poor cocoons. Something or someone (my bets are on the 1-year old) FELL ON THE BUTTERFLY HOUSE, smashing two of the cocoons to smithereens. Literally, the two smashed cocoons were flat and there was red blood-looking stuff all over the inside of the habitat. I was angry and Caleb felt sorry, admitting that it was he who moved the habitat into the playroom earlier that morning. The whole thing looked like a little murder scene and I explained to Caleb that we might not get any butterflies to hatch at all, not knowing if the other three cocoons were even still alive. (What a lesson on death for a 4-year old, I tell you!)

Much to our surprise, we came home from picking Caleb up at preschool on Wednesday to find two empty cocoons and two beautiful Painted Lady butterflies hanging out in the habitat. How cool!

Here is a picture of one of them in the butterfly house. The red that you see is the "red stuff" that was squirted all over...


On that note, when butterflies come out of their cocoons they drip all sorts of red meconium, so it's really no wonder that there was red everywhere after "the incident". We are so excited to watch the life cycle of these butterflies and to order more when we're finished.