Nature Study Club Post 3

We had our nature walk on Wednesday because it was suppose to rain on Friday. We got to walk all around the backyard and the nursery when X6 came upon this...a Black Swallowtail caterpillar! or Toni the caterpillar.

The kids really wanted to keep her but we had no idea what it liked to eat... leaves, we know.. but which ones??? We tried milkweed... nope... we tried.. well, that's all we tried :) Turns out another homeschool Mom had a few of these caterpillars and she told us that they love carrot leaves.... so she gave us some... and she was right!! Toni ate nonstop for three days...She really loved those carrot leaves, we kept them in water so they would stay green.

Here is a little video we took of her eating away!

After eating all that food, and pooping every 5 minutes, Toni had enough... she was ready to form her chrysalis. Thanks to our neighbor we were able to put her inside a small habitat container, but not before we were able to find a second caterpillar... a Monarch caterpillar which the kids named Chris. This one hated the carrot leaves, instead she went for the milkweed!!Not knowing much about caterpillars and chrysalis, I really thought it was one size fits all.... not so! While Toni went quietly, (it was like she fell asleep and cobwebs were forming around her) Chris was complete opposite... she was moving and shaking nonstop for like 10 minutes, while doing that she was actually transforming into a chrysalis... it was incredible!!!!!

This is a pic of what their chrysalis looks like, these are not my pics, I found them online.Black Swallowtail Chrysalis

Monarch Chrysalis

Here is another video we took of them in the habitat once they turned.

We will check back in about two weeks and hopefully see a pair of beautiful butterflies!