Caterpillar to Chrysalis

We are excited about this post because we are getting better at recording the steps from caterpillar to butterfly and have figured out how to share it with you.  Yesterday we released another female.  At first, we weren't sure if she was going to make it because she went into her chrysalis while she was kind of small compare to the others that we have seen.  We had two males at the same time and they were big, fat guys when they went into their chrysalis.

Below is the video of her in the fifth and final stage of shedding her skin, this is why she looks green and slimy.  They shed their skin after they have made the top part of their Chrysalis.  This little attachment holds them up while they shed and later holds their chrysalis in place, it is pretty strong. 

http://youtu.be/-AQTKuApgw8

She went into her chrysalis on February 22 and came out a butterfly on March 2.  She ended up falling from the chrysalis attachment (my fault) when the chrysalis was clear, so glad I didn't kill her.  In the first picture you can see her abdomen sticking out of the top which wouldn't happen normally. 

This blog is turning into an education on blogs, posts and videos for both Isabel and I.  Once again we have more videos to share and are having a hard time uploading.  Stay tuned...  We love to hear from you, click on Post Comment to leave an educational or encouraging message.

March 1, 2013 Release

This was a BIG caterpillar!

9:01am

10:12am - already cracked

10:33 am - free at last!

3:26pm - let me out!

going out into the wild.

it's a boy

time to fly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We released another butterfly today and it was another boy.  This time we posted pictures from the release and pictures of the chrysalis when it was green and before it hatched so that you could see the progression from chrysalis to butterfly. 

My mom took some really cool videos, of the butterfly coming out of the chrysalis, while I was at school.  She let the butterfly hang out in the house, on it's chrysalis shell, until I got back from school.  (Blogger is having video issues right now so we'll have to post them later.)

When we released the butterfly we found another male on the butterfly bush where we released yesterday's butterfly; we think it is probably the same butterfly.

My mom and I love to see the butterflies return and it's awesome when we come outside and see butterflies flying in the garden; it means they are enjoying our garden.