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It’s a journey towards destiny, and it all starts
with tiny eggs resting on a plant. The challenges ahead will be trying for the little insects.
They will travel for food, crawl on stems and branches, and even change form! They are called caterpillars and this
is their story.
Caterpillars
hatch from their egg with one mission: food!
This is
the stage when they do most of their eating. They crawl along their favorite plant, chomping as much as they can.
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| Photos provided by: VS Grenier |
While they eat, caterpillars hold on to the plant
with their hind legs, complete with hooks, so that they won’t fall off.
Because
they eat so much, caterpillars grow quickly. In order to keep up with their new size, they molt, or shed their skin about four times.
Just before
the final molt, the caterpillars attach their bottom half to a stem or branch by spinning a button of silk. Next, they spin
a thin silky thread, called a girdle, to hold up their upper half. The caterpillars then shed their skin for the final time, leaving a hard outer shell called the chrysalis.
They will
be held in place by the girdle and button for about two weeks.
On the
outside, it may not look like much is going on in a chrysalis. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Inside that
tiny shell is nature furiously at work.
The caterpillar
is going through a process called metamorphoses, or changing of form. When the
caterpillar was still in its egg the cells or tiny parts that grow the butterfly
were set aside for later.
 Once in a chrysalis, many of the caterpillar’s
cells turn into a liquid. The cells that were saved for later now grow into the
rest of the butterfly. This usually takes about two weeks, but can take as long as a year.
Finally,
the big day arrives! The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. Soon the wet wings will dry and it will be ready to fly.
Caring for a Caterpillar:
We’ve
all done it. We find a caterpillar crawling on a plant and wanted to watch it
turn into a butterfly.
In order
to be successful, there are some steps you should follow.
First,
be sure to pick one that you found feeding on a plant so that you know what he likes to eat.
Each species, or special group, of caterpillars feeds on one favorite plant. They are fussy creatures,
and some will rather be hungry than eat a different plant.
Once you
have your caterpillar, place him in a jar with tiny air holes in the lid. Add some of the plant he was found on.
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| Photos provided by: VS Grenier |
Since caterpillars eat almost constantly, his jar
will need to be cleaned out every two days. You may find you will have to do this more frequently, however.
Next, add
stems and sticks for the caterpillar so that he has somewhere to attach the chrysalis. He will also use these items when he
turns into a butterfly to hang upside down.
Why would
he hang upside down? When butterflies first come out of the chrysalis, their wings are wet and crinkled, like a used washcloth. They can’t fly with their wings like that, so they hang upside down to expand their wings properly.
Once your
butterfly emerges and his wings are ready to fly, you should release him in the same area where you found him as a caterpillar.
When you
see him fly away, he’ll probably fly in a wild swirling pattern. Butterflies
do this on purpose to make it hard for dangerous predators to catch them.
As you
watch your gorgeous butterfly twirl away, a trickle of pride may flow through you.
You’ve successfully helped a caterpillar fulfill its destiny.
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