Today at the Arizona Science Center, the Education Girlz assembled a butterfly habitat.
After the habitat was built, the girls learned about the stages of caterpillars, called metamorphosis. Before the caterpillars morph into the chrysalis stage, they molt up to five times. The last time a caterpillar molts, it grows a hard shell called a pupa. They stay in the pupa for one week and then the butterfly should emerge in 7 to 10 days. It will then take the butterfly 1 to 2 hours to pump fluids into its wings to fully expand and then harden. Did you know that the butterfly can fly as soon as its wings are ready? We should be able to observe the butterfly's proboscis (a tongue that works like a drinking straw) when it drinks from a sliced orange in its habitat. We can only keep the adult butterfly for 2 weeks before letting it go in nature.
Click here to watch a butterfly's emergence in time lapse
We took home three caterpillars and will take photos everyday to document their growth.
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| Samantha observes our three young caterpillars. |
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| MC adds caterpillars to our take-home container. |
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| It is amazing to think that these will be painted lady butterflies in just a few weeks! |
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| Our home made butterfly habitat. |
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