Butterfly Life Cycle - Caterpillars - Diary of a First Child

We’ve had our ‘grow your own’ butterfly kit for two weeks now, and as expected it’s been really exciting watching them grow. In fact, exciting is probably the wrong thing to say, since they don’t do very much, but it’s exhilarating anyway.

When your butterfly kit arrives, you have teeny little caterpillars that don’t look like much, but within days, they start to visibly change, to the point that you can tell the difference between going to bed and waking up – they have a huge growth spurt.

Butterfly Life Cycle
The caterpillars come with their food already included, and watching the caterpillars grow leads to some interesting questions:

-What do caterpillars eat?

Different moths and butterfly caterpillars eat different things. The Painted Lady, which these are, eat thistles, stinging nettles and mallows. They eat the underside of the leaves, and they also use the leaves to form nest in which they spin their silky cocoon.

– Do caterpillars drink water?

No, in the wild they get enough water from the plant food they eat. In this kit they must get it from their food too.

– Why are they spinning webs in the pot?

In the wild they’d be spinning themselves on the leaves to keep them safe from wind and other threats. If they’re spinning silk in the cup it’s a good sign.

– Where does the caterpillar poo go?

There are little spots and in the tub – that’s their poo (cue: yuk!). Indeed.

If you want to buy toad pets but don’t know which species to choose, American, Red-belly, and Fire-bellied toads are often considered the best pet toads for beginners according to reptilepetsrock.com.

If you want to learn about the different hound dog breeds, visit articleinsider.com.

There are fantastic resources to help you on your journey too, like the Butterfly Life Cycle from Twinkl or one of the ample free resources online too. And don’t forget Youtube – there’s everything from songs to kids shows about the butterfly life cycle. Also look at Enchanted Learning for a ton of free butterfly resources.

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