Two stayed home. One of them hatched yesterday. One hatched today.
Hatched. I can't imagine that's the proper term for it. Emerged?
Whatever.
It's crazy stuff. Their bodies get broken down and rearranged.
Remember these?
Rearranged.
And yes, it's definitely a boy.
It's easy to tell, you just have to know where to look.
No, not there.
Here.
The two black spots along the veins in the hind wings are scent glands. No question about it, he's a boy.
And he can fly.
Unless something got him already, he's on his way to Mexico right now. It's quite a journey. He's not likely to make it. But he might.
The one that
The Bean wanted to hold it, so I restrained her and gently set it on the back of her hand. Her laughter turned to dismay when it suddenly flew up and landed on her head.
She would have squashed it if I had released my grip on her to reach for my camera. You'll just have to trust me, the whole package was pretty darn cute.
She's headed to Mexico now too. Not my Bean. The butterfly.
10 comments:
Wow. I didn't know you had more than one. How cool! Congratulations on the successful launch.
We love doing this, too! One year I think we did around 40 of them! My boys just kept going out into the fields and finding them on the milkweed. We had a whole system set up!
This year we did about 10, a much more manageable number! :)
I love that you are so knowledgeable about butterflies Jess.
And...
Mexico? I guess I must check back into your archives. Why are they on their way there?
Have a fanflippintastic weekend chica.
That is SO COOL! I'm thinking we might have to try that next year.
I'm always in awe of butterflies. They really are amazing. :)
WOW! That's sooo amazing! Love so see that in person!
Amazing! I didn't know you could tell sexes on a butterfly. You'd think the only way to tell would be their parts, and they'd be so itty-bitty (poor guys) that you wouldn't be able to see. Incredible that you got some to, um, hatch/emerge/whatever. Cool stuff!
Beautiful! Really stunning!
This is AWESOME! What a great little lesson for your kids! Yeah, I'd be like...um, ok now it hatched. I mean emerged. OK, now it's a, uh,....hmmmm. Science is not my thing. :-) I remember my oldest son had the spelling word 'chrysallis' in 1st grade. I didn't even know what that was. Very humbling when your 7 year old has to explain it to you. HA! Have a great week!
A-MAZING pictures! I so need to do that next year!
P.S. I'm glad the little Bean decided to stay home! : )
That's so cool. We've never done this. I hope all your butterflies make it all the way to Mexico.
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