You may remember (as per our last post) that we 'adopted' a monarch caterpillar on our canoe trip. With my superb science teacher background :) I thought it would be fun to raise it and let it change into a butterfly. Sure enough, a few days after we took it home it formed a chrysalis. Kurtis actually caught it in the act (which only takes a minute or two) and we watched it form. It's an exciting thing. After about 2 weeks SHE emerged into a healthy female butterfly. Males are known by a large black spot on each of their back wings. They are pheromone sacks to attract females, which don't have the spots. So, ours being spotless, was a female. She was no Henry the IX.. but Henrietta. It was quite cold and rainy for a few days after she hatched so I kept her inside with some honey water and sticks to walk around on. Sarah was really interested, in a scared sort of way. Hopefully she's warmer and hibernating in Mexico by now. That's what they do. Learn all about monarchs here. There's your science lesson for the day.
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