One of our butterflies emerged from it’s cocoon yesterday. The excitement at our house was palpable.
Then Ben spotted what he thought was blood dripping from the butterfly’s back…. and the joy turned to despair. “What if it’s going to die? How sad, it just became a butterfly and it didn’t even get to fly.”
But after a quick look on the Insect Lore website, we found that it was not blood, but meconium… which for butterflies is left over cells, pigment etc. from making it’s wings. We all breathed a sigh of relief and happily watched our new butterfly pump it’s wings. The rest of the cocoon’s look like they are getting close to opening… they get darker just as they are getting ready.
I am pretty sure they are all moving slowly because our house is quite cool. It’s been snowing here… with more snow expected all through the weekend. Come back Spring! I miss you.
Now I’m off today to spend a rather cold field trip with my son’s 3rd grade class at The Stagecoach Inn.
We got our caterpillars a week ago. It’s exciting to watch them nearly double in size. We don’t have any cocoons yet.
-heather
I helped with a butterfly release for friends’ wedding last week. I’d been chrysallid-sitting for a week and was also a bit frightened by the red in the boxes. The wedding was a little windy but the release was pretty cool!
Ours are being released today. We had 5 out of 6 hatch!