Sunday, August 15, 2010

Caterpillar Update

So Mom and Dad decided to let the caterpillars continue to eat the parsley as long as they wanted. This was an easy decision because they knew it would not be much longer. Yesterday afternoon one of them disappeared (later to be found to have gone all the way under the deck to the foundation of the house where it was preparing to turn into a chrysalis), and they watched as the other one cleverly swung its way onto the deck via a strand of dill - walking along it until the weight of the caterpillar caused the dill to bend down to the deck boards.

Dad set up a little environment for them within a terrarium, complete with a transplanted parsley, and a bunch of twigs. They are not eating and have settled into a spot on a twig each, and are starting to attach themselves to the twigs with some fine strands of silky stuff (see the lower one in this picture - it looks like a string around its neck).

From what Mom has read, it will be about 3 weeks till the butterfly stage, OR maybe they will become dormant and go all the way till next spring. They will take some pictures and keep you posted.

Dad has been calling one of the caterpillars "him" and the other "her": it will be interesting to see the colors to the butterflies to see whether he is right.

15 comments:

  1. Ooooh, I can't wait to see the butterflies! I raised butterflies once, myself. I had to let them go once they hatched though.

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  2. That's so exciting to see them become pretty butterflies!

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  3. Wot a great thing to do. Please be sure to keep us posted with photos. We love butterflies.

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  4. What a neat project! We are excited to see how "Him & Her" turn into butterflies! Mommy says your Beans are cool to think of this for us to watch.

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  5. Wow, that is pretty exciting stuff! I wonder what sort of butterflies they will be? Can't wait to see the pictures :-)

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  6. Oh how exciting to see your butterfly!

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  7. That will be exciting to see them turn into butterflies.

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  8. Oh cool! Are those Black Swallowtail caterpillars? We grow a mix of parsley and zinnias in a bed for them and they always eat every last stem of parsley! We've never seen the chrysalis though...hope you can show pictures of that.

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  9. Wow, that incredible photos. I have never seen a catepillar with the spin stuff before. That is great that you are letting the little fella eat so he can get ready to do what he has to to become a beautiful butterfly or as we like to say here a flutterby.

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  10. This is like having your own National Geographic programme in your own backyard!

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  11. This is so cool! We can't wait to see the butterflies!!

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  12. How exciting! I wish my human would raise some butterflies for me. I would expect to have them as treats, though.

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  13. How eggsiting! We is so glad you is doing this, we can't waits to see what comes out!
    (We not knows how Squashies gets her name, she comes with it. Her originally daddy gives it to her. She is very short, her neck is short, her face is short, her legs is short, her body is short.. I guesses him thinks she looks squashed. We thinks she is beautiful! But she knows her name so changing it wouldn't work so good.) Thanks fur asking bout her, we loves her and glad you likes her too!

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  14. How can you tell if it is a girl or a boy? Great pictures.

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