(Photo below is of Alexandra holding the butterfly's food bowl that has one piece of watermelon in it - the butterfly is "drinking" from the watermelon)
This evening, we went outside to release our butterflies. Of the 5 caterpillars, one died as a caterpillar and 2 never emerged from their chrysalites so we only had 2.
We went in the backyard and unzipped their tent. One of them flew away almost immediately. The other went to the piece of watermelon and started to drink. So, Alexandra got the bowl of watermelon out and we expected the butterfly to fly away, but it just kept drinking. Alexandra excitedly put her finger next to the butterfly and it crawled on her! She even touched his proboscis. It was exciting and I took lots of pictures.
But then, the butterfly fell to the ground and didn't fly away. I finally realized that the butterfly could no longer fly.
Yesterday, when we'd come home from art class, I heard wings flapping. I went and looked in the butterfly tent and saw one of the butterflies with its wings stuck on the watermelon. I had to pick him up off the watermelon to free him.
Well, as we looked at the butterfly, I realized his wings were stuck together. I pried them apart, but he still cannot fly. He does have better balance, though.
(Photo above is of the butterfly on Alexandra's wrist in front of her butterfly shirt)
So, I guess we're keeping this one until "the end." I'm sad that he got hurt, but it will be nice to study him some more. We've enjoyed "our" butterflies, and Alexandra wants to do this again some time.
Reommended book: Starting Life: Butterfly by Llewellyn - Great book about Monarchs. It's also fun because the pages are cut different lengths like tabs.
(Update: The butterfly died on Thursday.)
No comments:
Post a Comment