Thursday, November 24, 2011

What do I do with the chrysalises for the butterfly tree house?

My daughter got the butterfly tree house for her birthday and of course lost the instructions. We have the caterpillars and don't know what to do with them once they turn into the chrysalises.





Can anyone help me out???? Thanks!|||First, a pupating caterpillar will attach itself to various objects. Check this out:


http://www.berkeleyswallowtails.com/ohno鈥?/a> (you may have to click on this link more than once if it shows a link- broken message because it's a great educational site)





The chrysalis ...metamorphosis.. begins shortly after the caterpillar finds a safe place to rest. "With a silk thread that comes out of a hole just below its mouth (spinneret), the caterpillar spins a silk pad to attach to. The caterpillar hangs from this pad. Soon, the caterpillars' skin splits open, from head to abdomen, revealing a shiny green case underneath - the chrysalis...


Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar will become completely liquid and reformed into a butterfly.


The Life Cycle - A Timeline of Transformation (scroll down the page):


http://www.earthsbirthday.org/butterflie鈥?/a>





"The conversion of a suspended caterpillar to the pupal (chrysalis) stage is pretty fast, lasting only a few minutes. It starts when the caterpillar begins to wriggle and writhe, doing just the sort of movement you'd expect would be needed in order to wriggle out of a whole-body leotard without any helping hands. The initial split in the skin occurs at the top, and reveals the green-white pupa within":


Photos of the action:


http://www.berkeleyswallowtails.com/pupa鈥?/a>





Videos your daughter might enjoy:


The metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly (I like how the little girl says bye to the butterfly as it flys away after completing it's transformation):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjIlaGpCf鈥?/a>


Butterfly metamorphosis - from larva to pupa to butterfly. Some time lapse transformations:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cReZiEN6E鈥?/a>


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Zi9ThQ-鈥?/a> (First 10 minutes of chrysalis into butterfly.)





List of type of caterpillar %26amp; plants they like for food %26amp; to use as host plants:


http://www.thebutterflysite.com/create-b鈥?/a>





This must have been an wonderful birthday for your daughter... I can only imagine how excited she is about this project!


Enjoy! Hope this is helpful.|||Here are a couple links that might help you:





http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/butte鈥?/a>





http://www.butterflyschool.org/teacher/r鈥?/a>





http://www.neostream.net/~bfarm/index.ph鈥?/a>





good luck with your butterflies =)

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