Saturday, August 25, 2012

Our Moth Has Emerged

Our little moth has finally emerged from his cocoon! 
He must have been super quick about it because one minute he wasn't there and the next there he was, hanging out casually as though he appeared by magic.


The girls were exceedingly excited, there was a lot of photo taking and squealing going on. 
Bubble realised it was our moths birthday so they made a card and left him some treasures :)

Bubble coloured in her moth template to look like 'Mothy' (even temporary pets need a name at our house).

Once it got dark we took the habitat outdoors and gently transferred him to the outside of it, being careful not to touch his wings. 
The girls sat watching him for a long time until he was ready to fly away into the night and do mothy type things.

We carefully cut open Mothy's cocoon to have a look inside.
The girls were very interested to see the fine silky bits holding the leaves together and the hard little case inside that was the caterpillars skin.

We put them into a petri dish so we could examine them easier.
Bubble was particularly intrigued by the skin the caterpillar had left behind and reading about how it turns into a goo before becoming a moth or butterfly. 

The girls have learnt so much about caterpillars, butterflies and moths from this experience, we'll be on the look out for more cocoons and chrysalises so we can do it all over again!


7 comments:

  1. I'm so jealous! We've tried at least 6 times to raise caterpillars in captivity, but they've always died under our care. We're resigned to just appreciating what we can find as we explore the outdoors.

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    1. I'm not sure what kind of caterpillars you've tried, but we never have luck with the fuzzy ones. However, swallowtail caterpillars (black and white stripes with yellow markings) are very easy to raise. We raise 1-2 every year and rarely have a casualty.

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  2. I volunteer at the local school with the 2nd graders.. The teacher had a butterfly project for Science. She ordered butterflies from Texas.. The Painted Lady's caterpillars arrived and were put into special containers.. The kids recorded daily in their butterfly work books . The caterpillars eventually spun their silk and went into their cryscillis in the Butterfly House Tent.. Last week we took the butterflies outside and let them lose.. The kids were so excited... Have a great Sunday~! TA TA for now from Iowa:)

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  3. We raised a caterpillar this month. He started as a bitty, bitty thing about 1/4 inch long. We knew he was close to going into his chrysalis so we even took him with us (in his jar) on vacation! Crazy, huh?! Sure enough, he went into the chrysalis on the last day of our trip. He hatched this week and my kids were thrilled to watch him fly and send him on his way. What a fun experience.

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  4. hello,
    I love your blog.

    I want to congrants you for it
    I´ve seeing that you don´t post anything new since august... I hope you are alright.
    Best wishes for you and your family.

    Love from MADRID

    ReplyDelete