Painted Lady Butterflies

As you are probably aware, we have been learning about butterflies in our class.
We received 27 very small Painted Lady caterpillars in April, and we watched them eat and eat!  They molted several times, and early in May, they molted for the last time and formed a shell around themselves called a chrysalis.

This video clip shows one of the caterpillars in the last stage of becoming a chrysalis.

 

 

Here are some photos of the chrysalises hanging in the flight cage:

 

 

 

 

  

The chrysalises have attached themselves to the filter paper that was in their caterpillar container.  The chrysalises were transfered to the flight cage. The filter paper is pinned to the flight cage.

 

 

 

Here is a photo of one of the 13 Painted Lady butterflies that had emerged as of Friday, May 17th.  We expect to see more butterflies by Tuesday, May 21st.

 

The butterfly is tasting the juice we placed in the flight cage. Can you guess what part of their bodies butterflies use to taste with?  Their front legs!