Three weeks ago this coming Sunday my 9 year old found a BIG green caterpillar in my mom's front yard near her rose bush. My boys have been looking for a REAL butterfly-changing caterpillar for years and they FINALLY lucked out! Anyway, we brought it home and stuck it in a big clear bug box with some leaves and have happily watched him crawling around and munching ever since. About a week ago I finally took the time to look it up on the computer to see if I could find out what kind of caterpillar it was and what it would turn in to. Sure enough we found JUST the one! (see above picture..) A white-lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moth. Cool, isn't it?...
So, we did some more looking and discovered that this particular 'pillar' as my oldest son calls it, doesn't become a butterfly, but a moth. A "Hummingbird" Moth. The name is obvious when you look at the end result... (see second picture...) Anyway, we learned that not only do they eat lots of leaves, but this particular worm will go underground to pupate, so we added a few inches of dirt to the container. Today, after #1 son went out and got fresh leaves for Wormy, we noticed it crawling around and round the circumference of the container and not really paying any attention to the new leaves. I told my son to leave the lid off, 
he couldn't get up the sides, anyway, and maybe it was too stuffy with the lid on (it was 106 degrees today... blech!) A few hours later he came to me and told me the "pillar' had escaped... and it was MY fault... oops...
he couldn't get up the sides, anyway, and maybe it was too stuffy with the lid on (it was 106 degrees today... blech!) A few hours later he came to me and told me the "pillar' had escaped... and it was MY fault... oops...A quick investigation proved what I had hoped REALLY had happened, which is that Wormy had decided it was 'time' and dug his way under ground. How exciting for us all! : ) And I was off the hook! lol! Now if I can just get the kids (especially the younger ones) to leave Wormy alone in his pupating slumber for the next couple of weeks until he emerges a beautiful moth... I'll keep ya posted!
5 comments:
Wow, that's exciting!! I'll be looking forward to what it becomes.
I've started my blog again here, mostly for homeschooling. : )
Tammy, Welcome! Is that a recent picture of the kids?? I can't believe how big they have gotten! Especially the twins!
I look forward to hearing more about your gallery! thanks for stopping by!
That's from Easter, so pretty recent. I can't believe how big your kids have gotten either. And you are having another one, that's so exciting!!!!
For several years, my kids and I raised the Monarch caterpillars we found every year around the time of our anniversary on milkweed.
The Monarch butterfly has a very special meaning for me, so I was thrilled when I looked up the ugly yellow, black and white worm that the kids had found...and found that it would become a black, orange and white Monarch!
We'd gather as many as we could find, and one of them would have to go back several times to get new milkweed leaves before they finally began to form the gorgeous green chrysalis that had a sparkling gold ring around the top.
I hope that yours grows as well as ours did!
God bless!
Wi,
I remember getting some "mail order" calipittars when I was little,and it seems they turned in to monarchs... They would pupate hanging from the container or a branch. It was wierd that these crawl underground... so, we can't see what it looks like... : (
Now "cousin pillar" from the "north" decided to bury himself on the side of the jar, so even though he's underground, they can still see him "morphing"... pretty cool, huh?... so, I told her to send pictures!
Lee
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