Caterpillars!

The caterpillars are GROWING and growing fast! Yesterday they were about 1 cm long and now they are about 1 and a half cm long.

You can see their 6 real legs (because they are insects) and their fake legs or prolegs which help them move.

A caterpillar's only job is to eat as much as possible. The light brown stuff  is their food because we are raising them indoors. In real life these caterpillars would eat leaves outside.

Caterpillars only eat. They do not drink. Of course if they eat a lot, they also have to go to the bathroom a lot. The little pellets in the photo are pieces of  "frass", which is the science name for caterpillar poop.

As caterpillars eat they grow bigger. Their skin or exoskeleton splits and the caterpillar crawls out (molts). The black spots in the photo are the old exoskeletons.

I hope you are thinking of lots of questions to ask about the caterpillars!