It must have been about late August or early September when 3yo John Paul discovered the largest, chubbiest caterpillar I've ever seen. He was bright green in color [did I mention how big this thing was?]. Therese, our nature-loving 6yo, put him [the caterpillar, that is] in her bug cage - which she had received for her 6th birthday last June. The caterpillar was affectionately known as "Chubby":-) He soon made a snuggly little cocoon for himself; I think he knew just how long he'd be 'sleeping' in the cage.
Now, we had NO idea whatsoever how long he'd be encased in his little happy home. But we waited and waited and waited. We did have a pretty mild winter, but it did get awfully cold in Jan. and Feb. We thought our little guy had 'kicked the bucket', so to speak. We waited and waited and... waited some more. I'd tell Paul, "That thing is dead. We really need to get it out of that cage." Not to mention that the 2yo, Joseph, would always open up Chubby's 'house' and the cocoon would go tumbling out onto the deck! This thing didn't have a chance! So we thought...
Fast forward to yesterday [5-15-07]...As I'm getting lunch ready for our home schooling pupils, I hear Therese yelling, "Dani, come here! Come here, Dani! Look! Look!"....[running into the kitchen from the deck]..."Mommy the butterfly came out!! It did!". I *COULDN'T* believe it!! We ALL ran onto the deck to see the moth's "eyeballs" staring back at us from within its habitat. How cool is that? Well, I grabbed the camera and tried to get some good shots of "Chubby".
Chubby's Glorious Transformation!
We just all could not believe our eyes. This thing lasted through every thing thrown its way. Therese picked up the cocoon and we saw his little hole from which he escaped...
So then I had to go and research what kind of moth Chubby was. I found him easily enough...he's a Polyphemus Silkmoth Oh, and as a side note, John Paul renamed Chubby. He's now Matthew [?]. On the link above they show all the stages of these moths. There they also show the eggs they lay, which we have too. So now the kiddos are really excited about watching these little eggs - which *she* laid - turn into more...Chubby Matthews!
3 comments:
Too Cool! That reminds me, I need to get around to doing our butterfly garden at somepoint!
LOL! That is AMAZING that he lived and came out all beautiful! I read your link on these moths - how cool!
Kelly
That is too, too cool. And what a great learning opportunity for the kids. Good thing it wasn't a couple of baby bunnies that John Paul had found??!!
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