A couple of weeks ago the kids and I harvested leaves and their accompanying caterpillars from our kale plants, putting them all into one of our largest habitat jars. The caterpillars were huge, and it was interesting to observe them strip the leaves by the end of the day. We put the jar outside on the back step and promptly forgot all about it, we had intended to refill and watch them more…but life got a bit busy.
It was something of a surprise when we noticed the jar recently, it no longer contained caterpillars and leaves, and was home to white butterflies!
Luna was delighted!
Upon further inspection, we discovered the chrysalises that the butterflies had emerged from, which I had never seen in the garden before, despite being all too familiar with the caterpillars.
Another very exciting moment was when we noticed that there were a few fresh butterflies yet to hatch, we watched them wriggling before they broke through and Luna was very taken with seeing their wings unfurl and dry out, ready for flight.
Such a special experience, I also discovered Luna had made a home in one of our bedside cupboards…. good fun. They are ‘re-homed’ now and probably looking for more of our kale to lay eggs on!
mermaids purse 