A couple of months ago, I was teaching the girls about the life cycle of a butterfly. They had read about it and drawn it and learnt it, but I secretly wished they could really SEE it for themselves!
Well one morning while waiting for the girls to complete their homeschooling for the morning, I noticed that my brand new little Lemon tree was completely bare of all it's leaves! On closer inspection, I discovered 3 fat lazy caterpillars!
Here was our chance!
We ran inside and found an empty peanut butter jar, poked lots of breathing holes in the lid, and filled it with juicy leaves. Then we added 2 of the green caterpillars, still on the twigs they were on.
Well within days they were hanging upside down, and were eventually pupa's!
What follows is really gross! The leaves and poo and water started to rot and smell really bad!
After many weeks of no activity, I was close to giving up, and ready to throw all that rot away...
...when one evening Zacky started shouting "Butta-tie! Butta-tie!" pointing to the jar! And there it was!
A BEAUTIFUL CITRUS SWALLOWTAIL!
In the picture you can see his empty brown pupa shell, as well as his brother's (or sister's) green pupa.
It had just emerged from it's pupa and was trying to open it's brand new, wet wings. We were all so excited, and thrilled to be able to see something like this with our very own eyes!
I felt that we should set him free, so we took him outside and with one shake of the jar he flew to the window sill, and that's where he stayed all night.
The next morning we were thrilled to find him still perched by the window, although I was worried that he had froze to death overnight.
I decided to gently nudge him, to fly away and find food, when he politely opened up his wings (probably a sign of warning) for us to see.
Unfortunately our lovely fairy tale has a bad ending...
... as we ran after him while he flew this way and that,
higher and higher...
SWOOSH! A bird got him!
Danica burst into tears and I just stood their in utter disbelief!
Butterflies - God's little Miracles!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
at 3:41 PM
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1 comments:
Oh what an amazing story. I'm a little envious though. You know we've been studying butterflies for a few years now and we've never found the citrus swallowtail larvae- I even planted up my garden for them. And I still only see the adults on the wing! You're so fortunate. It is so delightful to see children and adults getting excited about the little awesome things that God created.
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