Our research teams have been busy observing their caterpillars and thinking about what is happening to them as they are growing (bottom photo). Here are some of their theories and questions about the light brown spheres and the dark spots that are now in the growing containers:
"The caterpillars have some stripes and white dots and spikes. We think the beige dots are part of their food. We wonder why is their poo beige and the exact colour of the food?" - The Caterpillar Team
"The caterpillar skin is black. The black dots might be leftover skin, but maybe they eat some of it. The spheres may be crumbs from after they eat or it may be poop. We wonder why the caterpillar flips over so fast when it falls on it's back?" - The A Team
"The black dots may be part of the tail because we saw spikes on it. The spheres may be food rolled into a ball or some poop. We wonder why there is so much food in the container?" - The Pink Team
"The black dots are probably the skin because we saw lots of spike on it like on the caterpillar. We wonder why the caterpillar makes a web in the container?" The CLS Team
"We think the black dots are skin because it is the same colour as the caterpillar's skin. We also saw spikes on it. We wonder how the caterpillar makes the web thing in the container?" The Discovery Team
"Maybe the black dots are eggs or maybe it's skin. We see the caterpillars crawling around under the webs. We wonder why the spikes seem to be getting bigger?" The Awesome team
From our observations and book research, the students are sure that the black dots are the skin that the caterpillars sheds as it grows bigger, especially after the A Team saw a really big skin piece (top photo).
The beige spheres are the caterpillar's poop because the Pink Team actually saw the caterpillar do this (photo second from the top).
Our book research also told us that the caterpillar comes out of an egg and eats a lot. Because the skin does not grow it splits and the caterpillar sheds it off. This happens 4 or 5 times. The caterpillar is also called a "larvae".
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