this was our first time "growing" butterflies. we purchased them from a kit through insect lore at www.insectlore.com. within a week from ordering we had a small brown box delivered to our mailbox that contained a clear plastic cup with five little caterpillars. when they first arrived we were not sure if they were alive, but by the next day we had five hungry and active caterpillars crawling around getting ready to become little chrysalisis that would then become our butterflies. it took about 7 days for our first caterpillar to start this metamorphosis process, but the other four followed soon after. it took another 7-10 days for our butterflies to hatch. we released them into our butterfly garden shortly after the last one had hatched. this was a great experience and we learned a lot about butterflies. our butterflies were called Painted Lady and they can lay up to 500 eggs. some other fun facts about the painted lady are: she breathes through her abdomen, she taste with her feet, she has 10,000 eyes and she may travel 1,000 miles in her lifetime. books we read about butterflies included: the very hungry caterpillar by eric carle, waiting for wings by lois elhert, ten wriggly wiggly caterpillars by debbie tarbett and my yummy treats by sue whiting.
