All five are butterflies now! Sadly, one of them has no antennae and it's obvious that something is wrong with him even before you notice he's missing something. He tries to fly but just flops around landing upside down much of the time and having a hard time uprighting himself. I should probably know this by now, but I wonder... are the antennae what gives them a sense of orientation?
We got really brave and took them out of the cage . Well, first we took the cage in the bathroom and shut the door, just in case any of them got away. We put sugar-water on some flowers and a couple of them drank it. It was very cool to see the long probiscus (tongue) come out and drink the sugar-water.
I was telling my husband about the sick one and he asked how I knew it was a male. Without realizing it, I had been referring to it as 'he' and 'him'. They're all 'him's to me.
We'll probably let them go tomorrow or Saturday so they can live out the rest of their lives naturally. After all, with an average life span of two weeks, they're already middle-aged!
3 comments:
This is such a neat thing to watch! We found some sort of moth a few years ago and we had fun watching it laying eggs. I've never watched a butterfly drink before and now I'm dying to!
it sounds like such a great thing to be able to see!
Did you happen to see my post on the glasswing butterfly???? They are beautiful, if you haven't seen it yet, stop by and look!
I know your children learned a lot from this experience! Hope they won't be too sad to let them fly away.
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