Butterfly Journal
2003-04
This page is full of pictures! It might require extra loading time but it's well worth it!!!
See our other class pets here.
We will write down observations of our new caterpillars
in our butterfly journals every week when our caterpillars
are new and then every day when the develop more.
We will update this page each time a change occurs in our caterpillars.
Monday, April 12, 2004
Ms. Welch ordered our "Painted Lady" butterfly kit.
It should arrive next week sometime and we will begin naming our caterpillars.
We researched the painted lady, and this is what they will look like when they hatch!
Painted Lady (Scientific name=Vanessa cardui)
Like to eat: thistles; aster, cosmos, blazing star
Male Painted Ladies have smaller abdomens than females.
The tiny scales attached to butterfly wings give the wings their color.
Butterflies have taste sensors on their legs.
Parts of a Painted Lady:
More Painted Lady Links:
Earth's Birthday
Butterfly Anatomy
Painted Lady Printouts and activities
Very Cool site on Painted Ladies including some video files!
Friday, April 16, 2004
Our special package arrived! We got our caterpillars in the mail today. We put some food and a caterpillar in each cup. They were so small. They looked like they had just popped out of the egg. We named our caterpillars and made "name posters" and took a picture of them with the digital camera to welcome our new arrivals. We put together and decorated our butterfly journals so we could write down our observations.
Print your own journal cover and pages here
Here are the names we gave our new babies:
Matthew's caterpillar: "Cutie Pie"
Angie's caterpillar: "Cady"
Daniel's caterpillar: "David"
Jacob's caterpillar: "SpongeBob Suda"
Benjamin's caterpillar: "Crawly"
Stefanie's caterpillar: "Peanut"
Spencer's caterpillar: "Baxter III"
Rudy's caterpillar: "Homer"
Frank's caterpillar: "David"
Olivia's caterpillar: "Love Bug"
Joshua's caterpillar: "Fred"
Patrick's caterpillar: "David"
Erin's caterpillar: "Skyler"
Sydney's caterpillar: "Crawler"
Alex's caterpillar: "Ax"
Abigail's caterpillar: "Coo Coo"
Case's caterpillar: "Francis"
Mia's caterpillar: "Cady"
Gavin's caterpillar: "David"
Leighton's caterpillar: "Sweetie"
Adrian's caterpillar: ""
Ms. Welch's caterpillar: "Fuzzer".
Monday, April 19, 2004
Our caterpillars are about twice the size they were when we first got them. Some have made little "webs" that they are laying on like a hammock. We also noticed little balls of black skin rolled up on the bottom of the jars. This is caused by our caterpillars shedding their old skin to fit in their new, bigger skin.
Friday, April 23, 2004
We have been testing all week, but each day we have been watching our caterpillars to see if they have changed. Our caterpillars are about one inch(some more) long now with lots of spikey hair! They look really long! We wondered if they would still fit in the jar after today.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Most of the caterpillars were hanging in a "j" or already in their chrysalis's today when we came to school. A couple of caterpillars were still crawling around on top of the lid so it might take them a couple of days before they are ready to change.
We took off the lids and placed them gently into the net so they would be ready to go when they began to hatch.
The net for our new butterflies.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
The remaining caterpillars are now in their chrysalis. Now we just have to wait for them to hatch. We estimate it will be about a week before they hatch out. Some of them "wiggle" when we moved them into the net. This is a defense mechanism to keep them safe from predators. We think it is funny, and it looks like they are dancing!
Stay tuned for the hatching!!!
Look how dark these chrysalis are.
That means they are very close to hatching.
Look at the second one, you can see the wing patterns.
Monday, May 3, 2004
When Ms. Welch arrived at school today there were 2 butterflies that had hatched out of their chrysalis. One's wings were vibrating so it must not have been out long. When the students arrived 3 were out. By the end of the day, 15 had hatched! We observed one butterfly wiggling out of it's chrysalis during math class. It was amazing! Check out our pictures!
Check out this empty chrysalis!
Look at this cute guy!!
If you look close, you can see the gold spiracles.
Look! Isn't it beautiful?!
Look at these butterflies getting warm by the lamp!
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Today, all but 4 butterflies have hatched. They are very interesting. We have been watching them throughout the day and some like to flap their wings. Some like to drink sugar water from the flowers with their probascis. Some like to stay on the side of the net near the lamps.
Warming up by the lamp.
Cute!
These butterflies were flapping their wings slowly.
Can you tell which chrysalis has the butterfly still inside?
Wednesday, May 5, 2004
Today, all but 2 butterflies have hatched. We watched them on and off today just to see what kind of things they do. We wrote about our observations in our journals. One thing we saw today that was especially interesting was the butterflies eating using their probacis. We also noticed that when the butterflies wings are closed, they have great camoflauge! Check out these cool pictures!
Great camoflauge huh?
Wow! Look at this butterfly using its probacis (tube like tongue) to eat!
Thursday, May 7, 2004
For the past 2 days, there have been lots of butterflies "stuck" together mating.
Also, when we replaced the "old" flowers with the new ones we found something interesting.
Actually, a lot little somethings interesting! Look at the pictures below.
Can you guess what those little green dots are?
Still can't tell? Look at the next picture. Maybe it will help you guess!
Wow!
You guessed it!
Eggs!
The life cycle continues!!!
Monday, May 10, 2004
Today when we arrived at school, we looked at the new eggs that were layed over the weekend. There are so many on one of the flowers that it looks almost entirely green! Olivia looked even closer and noticed that some new caterpillars had hatched. They are so tiny! They look like specks of dirt, except they move! We were amazed! We will keep these new hatchlings to observe until the end of school.
View our release pictures! You will need your password.
