🦋Beautiful Butterflies 🦋
The warm and humid weather makes June the perfect time for butterflies to start emerging and fluttering through wildflowers and gardens.
There are approximately 18,500 named species of butterflies all over the world. Here is a quiz to identify some of the more common UK species: https://www.sporcle.com/games/Woorsie/uk-butterflies-picture-click
I have purchased a butterfly kit and the caterpillars were sent to me in a culture pot and in 2-3 weeks, they will eat, spin silk, and grow until they are 10x bigger than they were when they arrived. When they are ready, they will form chrysalides and then in another 1-2 weeks, they will emerge as Painted Lady butterflies! (pictured above)
If you’d like to join me in watching their journey, just subscribe to this post!
You could also join in by sharing any photos you capture of butterflies in your area
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Day 13 and 14 - (day 4 and 5 of Chrysalis stage) Not much visual change today and tricky to get a good photo through the mesh but I will try again tomorrow. Whilst it looks like not much is going on, there is a magical transformation happening inside!
Day 15 and 16 (day 6 and 7 of chrysalis stage) - the chrysalides have started to darken - 1 - Lou, 2 Emo and 4- Sun seem to be darker than the other 2 which makes sense as some of the caterpillars formed their chrysalis a day earlier. Darkening can be a sign that they are getting ready to emerge!
@Lou73 So Exciting!
Day 17 (day 8 of chrysalis stage)
By morning, 3 of the butterflies had emerged! And then the 4th butterfly (Misty) emerged at some point during the day when I was at work so I've missed all 4 emerging from their chrysalis' 😥 I'm gutted that I didn't get to see it but the flutterbyes are too cute to be mad at them for breaking free without me. And nature waits for no one.
The newest butterfly spent some time resting on the top of the chrysalis station and then joined the others by resting on the side of the netting, with their wings mainly closed and occasionally stretching them to get used to how their new wings feel!
When butterflies emerge, they dispel something called meconium from the abdomen to get rid of anything not needed to complete metamorphosis. It looks like a red liquid but isn't blood (insect blood is actually greenish-yellow in colour). I will try and keep out meconium from pictures as best as possible.
So it's just our Angel left to emerge. It's hard to photograph but I can see the wing pattern all folded up inside so it's very close to emerging. I will now be taking the habitat everywhere with me (not leaving the house) until the last one emerges as I desperately want to see one emerge.
I've also added half an orange to the habitat so that the new butterflies have something to feed on.
@Lou73 Wow how wonderful xxxxxx love to the butterflies ♥️🦋🦋🦋💙💙💙🦋🦋🦋😁👍
@Lou73
wow i would have never thought there would be so many different types of butterflies. how beautiful❤️
Y'all Butterflies are so Beautiful!
Day 18 (day 1 of all butterflies)
So somewhere between 3:30am and 6:30am, Angel, our last remaining Chrysalide split open and burst it's way out so I missed all of them emerging :( .
But there has been lots of wing flapping and fluttering and a few of them have visited the orange but I haven't seen them feed yet.
@Lou73
Woweeeeee! Misty is flying high with all the other butterflies, fleeeee flyyyyyyyy wheeeeee look at them all enjoying this new stage in life 🌞🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🌞
Lou sending you hugs and so many thanks for this fantastic Thread Of The Year 🥂🏆 and as a swansong none better! I have loved working with you on Hobby Zone, your work for our team has been amazing and I hope to continue that in other areas of the site.
♥️♥️🦋🦋♥️♥️
@Lou73
Awwww!!❤ At last the expected moment came, can't even imagine we all have here with you since you started this wonderful thread ❤ (I am sorry that you didn't get to see them all emerge, but you do see them shine now 😀)
They are so beautiful and pretty! Haha, I am sure they will love the orange very much if it's sweet when they start feeding on it, don't worry ❤
Thank you for making this wonderful thread, I had a great time watching those sweet butterflies grow ❤
I agree this is Thread of the Year! Lovely Butterflies!
This is such a beautiful pic @PatienceImpatiens!
@Lou73 have they flown away yet?
Listening - One Step At A Time!
@PatienceImpatiens Best cat pic ever!
Listening - One Step At A Time!
Day 21 - so the butterflies continued to feed and practice using their wings. I topped up the fruit and sugar water multiple times a day and even provided a fresh spring of Buddleia each day too! They did a lot of resting after their miraculous transformation and expelled all the excess meconium.
They were then ready to release! I waited for the warmest part of the day to release them and they were definitely ready to go. 2 of them flew straight out and were off in the direction of the nearest park! Then another flew out and stayed in the bushes for a while. The last 2 I took out on my hand and let them sit for a while before they flew away.
So now our butterflies have been released, it's the perfect time to say that I too will by flying away from HZ. Thank you so much for all your interest and support in my last post, it's been wonderful to share it with you all!
Lou 🦋
@Lou73 Wait, What? Where will you fly? How can you not still be interested in Science and Art and Beauty? Where are you going?
@PatienceImpatiens
Haha omg Pat is gonna catch me!! I'm very much still interested in all those things but changes have been made to the HZ which I don't agree with and the way it was done was upsetting so I'm taking at least a break.
@Lou73 Lou the Butterfly, it's Pat the Cat. It's ok to disagree. It's also really good to refresh oneself, fly around a bit, try some oranges and honey, live on the wild side. Just remember your People. You are always Loved.
@Lou73
Thank you for taking the time to share this entire experience with us, it is one of those happy and sad moments when you are able to at last set them free. It is also sad to see as you step away from our lovely little Hobby Zone home. I understand the need, but will miss you none the less. I hope you are able to soar much like all those beautiful butterflies.
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
I am sure it wouldn't have been easy to watch they fly away 😭♥️
I mean I wasn't even there but somehow got attached to them then I can't even imagine how difficult it would have been for you. Sending strength, love, and positivity your way!
The best part is that we all could witness their beautiful growth journey because of you. A big THANK YOU! ♥️♥️♥️
Much love,
-Angel 💙💜
@Lou73
