In mid August the girls and their cousins found a caterpillar in the yard and put it in a bug cage. Gracelyn, being the critter lover that she is, was determined to keep it!! And it HAD to be in her room so she could take good care of her! ha! Being the curious person that I am, I wondered just what kind of caterpillar she had so I googled it! What would I ever do with out google!!!?? =D I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the wild, zebra striped caterpillar would be turning into a Monarch Butterfly!!! And soon judging by the size of her! The girls were thrilled and proceeded to ask all kinds of questions I didn't have knowledge about, so back to google I went! haha! We found out all kinds of fun and interesting facts about Monarch Butterflies!! Apparently raising the MB's are a common enough practise and there was a lot of good info and video clips on the internet. Here are some of the intriguing facts we learned:
1. Monarch Butterflies only live about 2-4 weeks.
2. MButterflies usually have around 4-5 generations in one summer.
3. Only the 4 or 5th generation of MB's fly south to CA or Mexico for the winter.
4. MButterflies only eat milkweed plants. Thank goodness there are around 100 varieties!!
5. Mbutterfly pupa (caterpillars) are tiny when hatched but grow 2,000 times bigger in a matter of 10-14 days!
6. Because they grow so fast Mcaterpilars have to shed their skin 5 times.
7. It takes about 10-14 days for the MButterfly to "hatch" from it's chrysalis.
8. You can tell if a Mbutterfly is a boy or a girl by spots on it's lower wings. Spots = Boy
No spots = Girl
1. Monarch Butterflies only live about 2-4 weeks.
2. MButterflies usually have around 4-5 generations in one summer.
3. Only the 4 or 5th generation of MB's fly south to CA or Mexico for the winter.
4. MButterflies only eat milkweed plants. Thank goodness there are around 100 varieties!!
5. Mbutterfly pupa (caterpillars) are tiny when hatched but grow 2,000 times bigger in a matter of 10-14 days!
6. Because they grow so fast Mcaterpilars have to shed their skin 5 times.
7. It takes about 10-14 days for the MButterfly to "hatch" from it's chrysalis.
8. You can tell if a Mbutterfly is a boy or a girl by spots on it's lower wings. Spots = Boy
No spots = Girl
Our caterpillar eat and pooped and eat and pooped and eat and pooped!!! Nothing different than having a baby on your hands! LOL! It was very fun to watch her grow. The girls were adamant that she was going to be a girl!! HA! We got to see her transform into a cocoon which was really something! At first the cocoon is a very light, bright green with pretty gold specks. But as it gets closer to the Mbutterfly hatching, it starts to turn become transparent and you can see the wings forming inside!!! A day or 2 before it emerges, the chrysalis turns so transparent you can see the MB clearly!! It hatches from the cocoon very quickly, and I was not inside to see it happen unfortunately! =( But the girls were right beside it and raised quite a ruckus!!! By the time I got to the kitchen it was already hanging from the chrysalis it had just emerged from. When they first hatch, they have to hang upside down for awhile until blood flows threw their veins (black stripes) and inflates their wings! Then they slowly start fluttering them up and down! It is amazing to it next to the small cocoon it just hatched from....hard to believe it fit in there! The girls were able to hold it on the stick but she was ready to be set free and kept crawling around! Before we let her go, we took a good look at her wings...the girls were not too happy to find out it was a HIM! haha! They got over it and we took HIM outside and away he flew!!! What fun! You will notice in the collage, that there are 2 pics of a BLACK and YELLOW butterfly as well. Well it so happened that Grace found yet another caterpillar and so we looked this one up too. He was going to be a Swallowtail Butterfly!! He formed his cocoon by the next day and was totally different than the monarch! Very fun nature project for the family to enjoy!
Ok, so most people run screaming and screeching from a snake. Don't worry Moriah has that all covered for us in this family!! LOL! But the rest of us find snakes to be pretty cool! =D Poor Moriah came screaming from the garden one fall evening saying she saw a snake! Not really believing here, but curious the rest of us went snake hunting! haha! Sure enough there was a good size snake in the garden. Daddy caught it and put it in a bucket so we could get a closer look. It was too big for a Garter snake, soooo....off to google it I went! LOL! We determined it was a Midland Brown Snake. They are harmless and never bite when captured. Grace was ecstatic when I told her she could hold it and it wouldn't bite her! haha! I can still remember how she giggled and giggled as it slid through her hands. What can I say, she's her mother's daughter! =D Moriah wouldn't get very close to it...all she wanted to do was run around putting on a drama show! HA! Of course Elaina thought it was great fun to mimic Moriah so the two of them ran around the yard screeching and flapping their arms while Grace, Daddy and I had fun with the snake! LOL! Grace begged to take it too school!!! We compromised and let her take the pictures to school! HAHA! She was VERY sad to let Mr. Snake go.... I'd get her a small one for a pet in heart beat, but then I'd have to deal with certain relatives refusing to come over anymore! Sigh.....! =D
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