The caterpillars are growing!

The caterpillars are growing! The research teams measured the caterpillars and they are around 3 cm long now. As you can see from the photos, the caterpillars now have stripes and dots patterning their bodies. They also have lots of spikes. When asked "why do you think these caterpillars have spikes?", these are some of the theories:

"They have spikes to make them look scary to animals that want to eat them."

"The spikes make them taste bad."

"The spikes help them make the webs (in the containers)."

After reading information about caterpillars using their research books, the groups learned and shared the following:

Butterflies lay eggs.
Caterpillars hatch out of the eggs.

Caterpillars are very hungry and eat all the time.

When they grow, their skin does not grow and it splits and the caterpillars crawls out of it.

A caterpillar is also called a larvae.

Now the students are working on their theories about how each caterpillar will make the chyrsalis.