Thursday, August 23, 2012

It's Lucky's Day!

In my past two posts I told you a little about Scaredy and Playful. If you read one or both of those two posts you know who they are if you didn't, they were caterpillars. I say were because they are no longer caterpillars. They did their caterpillar thing and one of them made it and one didn't. The people at the Butterfly Sanctuary told me that right before they turned into chrysalises they would attach themselves to the lid of the container they were living in. Well, they did. Unfortunately, I was taking care of them. I went to look at them, being very careful, and I tripped and dropped them.  The next day they turned into chrysalises. I assumed they were already dead, so I poked them. I like to poke everything and make things worse! One of them was okay, but one started oozing liquid, okay insect blood! (Did I mention I was poking them with a sharpened pencil?) I decided to save both of them just in case they weren't dead. It's a good thing I did. I happened to glance over at them a couple of days later and I saw one of them had emerged from it's chrysalis.
 

I was very excited! (Sorry about the dead one in the picture.) If anyone else decides to do this project and they fall, just leave them alone. You do not need to poke them. No matter how much you may want to. I know this from personal experience!  We kept the butterfly for a few days and the girls named it Lucky. Lucky because it lived! We fed it a little sugar water on a cotton ball.
 
 
We set it free outside, but had to take a few pictures of it before we said goodbye.
 
 
 
I got some good close ups because it was a little chilly when we let Lucky go. We checked the next day and it had flown away.
 
 
 
I hope Lucky finds some nice flowers.
Let us know if Lucky visits you!
 



Friday, August 10, 2012

What's That Insect?

Pie Pie's project this week was to identify this insect.

 

We discovered it outside at the butterfly sanctuary. First they thought it was a bee, but I could tell it was not a bee. Then we thought it was a hummingbird, but it was too small. We knew it was a moth or butterfly, but weren't sure what kind. We went on the Internet and found it right away! It's a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. It was really neat to see and discover what type of creature it is.


In this picture you can actually see it's tongue coming out to drink.

I also wanted to share how big Playful and Scaredy are getting!  Almost time for them to turn into chrysalises.


I hope you enjoyed this little bit of Science in your day!





Monday, August 6, 2012

Cleaning up the Frass!

You may think I misspelled a word in the title, spellchecker thinks I did! However, I did not! If you do know what that funny word in the title is, you are definitely smarter than I was last week! So, what is frass? Here's a hint!


It's caterpillar poop!
Why do they have silly names for animal poop? There's guano, road apples, chips, scat, dung and I'm sure there's more! We actually discussed this over dinner tonight! My girls thought it was very funny.
Now onto the real reason for this post!
We recently went on a super fun field trip to 


I want to thank some of my homeschool friends for letting me know about this wonderful place. It was a bit of a drive, but well worth it. We got to watch a video about the life cycle of a butterfly and hear a nice talk all about butterflies. During the talk they have an audience member dress up like a butterfly which was a nice visual for my girls. Then you get to visit the butterflies in a Flutterarium. 


It was very much like a fairyland. There were flowers and butterflies everywhere. 


You could even hold the butterflies, if they let you. Some were more friendly than others!


The girls could have stayed here all day!


Anyone who know us, knows we don't go anywhere without a friend. 


Don't forget about me! I love butterflies.


Since Pants and Pie Pie loved the butterflies so much we brought home some butterfly babies. Say "Hello" to Playful and Scaredy! 


My girls are very literal with names. Playful is the one on Pant's finger and Scaredy is the one in the container. He tends to curl up in a ball when you pick him up. We are very excited to watch them grow, turn into a chrysalis and become butterflies.
Come back soon to see how our babies are doing!