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You are here: Home / Critters and wildlife / Painted Ladies

Painted Ladies

June 10, 2010 by Andrea Bellamy 7 Comments

caterpillar

Another before-and-after post for you this week. This, of course, is a caterpillar, the larva of a painted lady butterfly.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of Lila’s favourite books, so my mom thought she’d enjoy seeing the transformation process up close. Like in a box on the mantle.

chrystalis

A few days after my mom brought over the caterpillars (two, each in their own individual plastic cup), they fixed themselves to the lids of their cups, and transformed into chrysalises. Then we took the lids off and taped them to the lid of a more spacious abode (a plastic salad box).

painted lady butterfly

Another few days passed, and the butterflies emerged! Unfortunately, both chose to leave their chrysalises at night, so we didn’t actually see it happen.

butterfly!

Hello, you! Welcome back – you’re looking better than ever.

painted lady butterfly

That red stuff? Butterfly pee. (Who knew?) We fed them thyme flowers for a day, then let them loose in the wilds of East Van. Far thee well, ladies.

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Filed Under: Critters and wildlife, Miscellaneous Tagged With: butterfly

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laura says

    June 10, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    So cool! Your kids must have loved watching the process!

  2. Jaspenelle says

    June 10, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    This is such a fantastic idea, when my two year old is a little older I think he is going to love something like this!

  3. Garden Girl says

    June 11, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    wow, beautiful!

  4. Lorraine says

    June 12, 2010 at 11:09 am

    Haha, when I came across the first picture on this post I thought you were going to eat what’s in the bowl ;) What a great idea, can’t wait until my little girl is old enough to watch the transformation.

  5. cindy says

    June 12, 2010 at 11:18 am

    lol, Ya! No! Don’t eat that was my first thought. Wow was my second thought this is a fantastic transformation going on. What a way to watch the day unfold, thanks for sharing

  6. Esther Johnson says

    June 13, 2010 at 8:12 am

    hi, just loved the pics. got to see them emerge this time. one spent about an hour getting it’s proboscus together. thanks for sharing your pics. es

  7. Georgia says

    June 13, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    Best re-use of a plastic salad container!

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