Caterpillar update

Well what an exciting day in Room 15. When Miss Mules got to school yesterday morning at 7:50am she came in to find 4 of our caterpillars hanging to in the 'J' shape. They do this before they make their chrysalis.

They have made their silk pupation pad which sticks them to this leaf. 

We also saw a caterpillar shedding its skin. They do this because they have got to big for their skin and are still growing. 

They seemed to sit in this same position for hours... 

Then after second lunch we came back and saw this happen! 

This is what we saw when we were lining up to go inside. The black thing at the top is its skin which it sheds as the chrysalis moves up its body. 

We saw this at 1:53pm. 

This is what it looked like at 1:54pm. The caterpillar wriggles in a back and forth motion to get the chrysalis to move up its whole body and it does not take long at all. In this picture you can clearly see the skin gathering at the top that will be dropped onto the ground when the chrysalis reaches the top. 

We had 4 chrysalis' all made and ready to transform into a monarch butterfly. We were all so excited to see the next stage in the lifecycle. 

Then while we were doing work a wasp came and ate one of the chrysalis'. We had seen a wasp eat a caterpillar the week before but did not know that they would do this to fresh chrysalis'. 

This is what the chrysalis looks like now after the wasp ate the bottom of it. 

Now unfortunately we only have 3 chrysalis' and 5 caterpillars left. 

Hopefully we will be able to have 8 monarch butterflies.