The butterflies are now free...

The students took the butterfly cage outside on Friday to release the Painted Lady butterflies that the children have observed since they were tiny caterpillars (around 1 cm long). The butterflies (adult stage) are now free to go and lay eggs to complete their live cycle. Recall, that the circle of life for these creatures is egg, caterpillar (larva), chrysalis (pupa) and butterfly (adult).

It was very exciting on Tuesday to come into the classroom and find almost all the butterflies had come out of their chrysalids! The butterflies were given orange Gatorade and the juice from fresh orange slices to drink because butterflies drink but don't eat (and caterpillars eat but don't drink). A butterfly has a long straw-like tongue called a proboscis that it uses to drink liquids. In nature, of course, butterflies drink liquid nectar from flowers and the long tongue helps to reach the nectar.

There was a lot of insect blood in the butterfly cage! This is due to the fluid the butterfly uses to pump up and straighten out its wings that were folded up inside the chrysalis. After the wings are unfolded the butterfly doesn't need the fluid anymore so it pushes it out of its body. 

Did you know, that Painted Lady butterflies are found on all the continents, except for Antarctica? That they can fly over 20 kilometres per hour and up to 100 metres? That the patterns on the wings are many up of coloured, overlapping scales and the patterns are used for camoflague or to scare away predators (some wings have patterns that look like large eyes)? That Painted Lady butterflies have 4 symmetrical wings (two on each side) and they only live for 2 weeks? They also taste things with their feet!

Here are some photos from this week: