Three

The third moth is up this morning. I managed to take a couple pictures before it flew away.
What a transformation!

Butterfly Away

I'm happy to report that our butterfly project is a success......sort of.
We did throw away a couple of chrysalis before Amy informed us those are not dead caterpillars.

Anyway, the first Moth came out yesterday and was released in the evening. It was disoriented at first and climbed on me for a while. Finally it fluttered it's wings and flied away into the sunset.

This morning the second one came up to the net covering the jar. It's stronger than the first one, making a viable effort to get out. When I took it out to the backyard, it never stayed on the tomato plant for a rest. It disappeared once the net is off.

I'm still hopeful for a Monarch butterfly.......

Raising Butterflies

I've seen beautiful monarch butterfly in the backyard several times this spring.
Then Carol discovered one caterpillar on the tomato plant.

I found 6 more on the same plant and here they are.
According to online information, caterpillars are picky eaters and pretty fragile.
Ours grow at least twice in size a day.
They remind me of raising silk worms. Some educators in Taiwan are advocating raising caterpillars instead of silk worms as caterpillars can be released to the environment when children lost interest in raising them.
I've added a wooden structure inside the habitat this morning. In the afternoon one of the caterpillar is crawling around the wooden structure with speed, probably looking for a spot to pupate?