From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Are there any homeschool families who have not yet raised butterflies?

We first started out using our Monarch Butterflies Nature Unit Study and purchased chrysalises from a local butterfly farm!

It was our first experience with raising caterpillars we found in our garden, back in November of last year during the monsoon season. We've come such a long way since then!

We found a several Common Mormon caterpillars eating away the Lime plant in grandma’s garden. There was one that stood out and it was in its final instar so we decided to take him home later that evening. We put him snug in a jar and covered the top with gauze.

The next morning, he had chewed through the gauze and escaped. Thankfully it didn’t wander off too far but it was already beginning to pupate. He glued himself to a metal ledge with a button of silk and molted for the final time.

Here’s what we discovered the next day. Suspended with two strands of silk and his molted skin! The chrysalis (pupa) went on to turn darker brown over the course of the next few days.

In just a little over a week, it emerged out of it's chrysalis. Being able to witness one of the most magical transformations in nature was miraculous! It was an amazing learning experience for all of us.

It seems simple enough, but we've become braver and more confident to take in different caterpillar species, in all it's different instars and watch them grow!

We sketched this beauty in our Nature Journal and release him as soon as he was ready to fly!