Lifecycle of a Butterfly Part 4 (Pupa to Butterfly)

Daddy had said that the pupa would have become a butterfly before he comes back. Having done some research first on the Internet, Mommy doubted so. After all, Daddy left Singapore for Korea just one day after the caterpillar turned into a pupa and the metamorphosis process usually takes about two weeks. And Daddy will only be away for six days.

True to literature, our little pet pupa was still a pupa when Daddy got home, and it remained so until the day after National Day. On Singapore's National Day morning, we found out that Tong Tong's butterfly had come out of its cocoon and was waiting to be strong enough to fly away. Mommy woke Kieona and Kierra up from their sleep as she was afraid they may not get to see the butterfly. It will then be such a pity. They were rather happy to see it, despite being still bleary-eyed. Since it was something new to them, they asked to have their breakfast alfresco along the corridor, so that they can watch the butterfly strengthening up its wings. Well, girls of leisure - they sure have the makings of people who know how to enjoy nature when the opportunity arises.

How the butterfly looks like

Looking for the butterfly

Alfresco breakfast...

Since Tong's caterpillar turned into a pupa one day before ours did, Mommy expected ours to turn into a butterfly the day after National Day. Although we came back home late on National Day as we had gone to watch the fireworks, Mommy woke the girls up once she found out at around 8am in the morning that our butterfly is now out of its cocoon and ready to fly. This time, the girls were really amazed, as they could go close to see the butterfly since it was enclosed in the hibernation box Mommy made. Kieona was a little bit upset as we had to release the butterfly. She had wanted to keep it but Mommy explained that it could die if we kept it, as it deserves to be free and to eat. She reluctantly agreed and learnt that in life, sometimes the best way to love something is to let it go. Sounds profound? Well, Mommy sneaked that in when explaining the reason about letting the butterfly go.

What a great home lesson learnt!

Can you see the butterfly paterns forming?

The empty cocoon - the butterfly beside it... looks slimy

Our butterfly, but now we have to let it go

Kieona and Kierra, happy that the butterfly has finally come out of its cocoon

Isn't it amazing?

Lifecycle of a Butterfly Part 3 (Caterpillar to Pupa)

As promised, here is the much awaited photos which Mommy has been procrastinating to put up. The caterpillar we had on our lime tree was getting fatter and one day after our neighbor's caterpillar turned into a pupa, ours did too. Noting that this batch of caterpillars seem to prefer hanging by a hard surface, away from the plant which was its home and food for the first two weeks of its life, Mommy fashioned a box to keep our very fat caterpillar.

It turned into a pupa on 30th July, a day after Mommy put the caterpillar into the box. Kieona and Kierra both had gymnastics practice earlier and we noted that the caterpillar looks like it was turning into a pupa with its shortened and fatter state when we left the house at about 4pm that day. When we got home at around 6pm, it had already turned into a pupa. Daddy described the changing of state as an "explosion". How does the caterpillar covering turn into the pupa like stage? We had totally missed the process. Did it "explode" and just change within seconds or??? Then again, we're glad to be able to deduce that the skin actually came off to reveal its pupa covering state. Check out the photos if you got lost from my explanation.

Caterpillar hanging on the mesh cloth before turning into pupa

It had turned into a pupa! Look at the original skin at the tail end!

Our neighbour's pupa, which had climbed onto the stand for Mommy's pot

Lifecycle of a Butterfly Part 2

Did you ever know that when a caterpillar gets frightened, it raises two red antennae-like thing on its head? Well, we definitely didn't know until Eugene went to touch one of the caterpillars. We took this photograph just yesterday, after Maria stroked it with a stick.

Look at the orangey-red antennae when it gets frightened

We did a search on this and apparently it is common, just that it is something we didn't know before. For the record, it is called Osmeterium.

Lifecycle of a Butterfly Part 1

We got inspired with Chelsea's pupa and Mommy decided to keep one of the caterpillars on our Kaffir Lime plant (although the rest had to be removed to prevent too much of the leaves being eaten up).

We spotted the caterpillars early this week on Monday and it's been seven days since we spotted it. It was originally this black and white caterpillar that was so tiny and had hairs on its body and now on day 7 it looks green and slimy. Our next door neighbour has got two caterpillars on their plant which is growing tandomly with ours and we're enjoying this caterpillar growing up process every single day since Monday. Check them out below.

Our caterpillar on Day 3 from the time we spotted him

Tong Tong's caterpillar - the big one

Tong Tong's caterpillar - the smaller one which is still black and white

Hey look! An hour later, Tong Tong's caterpillar shed its skin and is now green!