This page is dedicated to the two little Monarch butterflies.
Several friends and families had a pre-Xmas get together at the Habecker house. The kids were playing around going crazy. At some point, one of the neighbor kids told the rest, “Want to see my catepillars?” Poof they went. The catepillars came from around the corner on another neighbor’s Crown flower. Naturally the kids got a few in a little container to play with.
As the day came to an end and the other kids lost interests, little girl kept staring at them. While I, for some reason, was contemplating the virtue of letting nature take its course, my wife decided this is a good learning opportunity. So we took them home.
We filled a bucket with some water and loaded it with some cuttings of the Crown flower and put the catepillars inside.
Day 1: The two of them got comfy and started to eat.
Day 3: After some serious eating, they both found the same leaf to anchor themselves. At this point, the one closer to the camera is perfectly still. The one farther in is still wiggling.
Day 4: Their cocoons are formed.
Day 5-14: Not much changes except the coloring of the cocoon. The changes are subtle but noticeable.
Day 15: The cocoon in the front clearly shows a dark patch.
Day 16 8:45AM: My wife for some reason decided to go look at the little thing and noticed a significant darkening. The front one is almost black.
Notice that was 8:45 in the morning.
Day 16 13:17PM: A few hours later, the first butterfly had already emerged. In fact, its wing is almost dry and hardened enough for it to fly away.
Day 16 16:47PM: By the time I got home from work, the butterfly was gone. I took a shot of the old cocoon and the remaining one. Looks like it will emerge tomorrow.
Day 17: Now my wife is on a cocoon watch. Here’s 2 pictures in the 8am hour.
Day 17: Emerged!
Day 17: After resting (and drying its wing) for several hours, it explored our yard a little before flying away.
Day 19: We decided to clean up the bucket and all the left over plant material. Here’s the remain of the cocoons.
This concludes our little Monarch Butterfly Diary.
Of course, my wife was correct. Somewhere in that little head, my daughter had filed this away as one of the many experiences that most people will never have. … now whether she’ll remember it, that’s something else.
