Butterflies released by Ms. Glenny’s class

Catterpillars and Butterflies by Ms. Glenny’s First Class

We got a butterfly kit containing 32 baby caterpillars.  Each caterpillar was placed in a vial containing caterpillar food.  The vials were covered with tissue and the lids had air holes.  The caterpillars stayed in the vials for around two weeks eating and growing.

When the caterpillars were ready they crawled to the top of the vials and became chrysalides.  They did this by spinning a silk pad around them and hanging upside down from it.  While it looks like they are hibernating, they are very busy.  They stayed like this for two weeks.

We moved them into the butterfly habitat for hatching while they were in this phase as they are slowly changing into butterflies.  It takes up to two weeks for them to change from chrysalides into butterflies.  The chrysalides burst and the butterfly hangs upside down.  After two hours its wings will have dried and the butterfly will be ready to fly.  Once this was done, we put cut up oranges into the habitat.

A butterfly lives for between two and four weeks.  We released the butterflies into our school garden.  The butterflies we minded and released are called Painted Lady Butterflies.  We also think we got one Red Admiral.  Each butterfly can lay up to 500 eggs.  We hope there will be lots of butterflies in our garden soon.  Click here to see the gallery of butterfly photographs.