Raising Butterflies

Black Swallowtail butterfly laying eggs on fennel.

One of my favorite things about summer is butterflies! The first summer we were in our house, my landscaping priority was to create a butterfly garden. It's pretty simple to do- pick a few species you'd like to attract and provide nectar plants for the adults and host plants for the caterpillars. Most caterpillars can only survive on certain plants. The two species I decided to focus on because I think they are the easiest to attract, are Black Swallowtail and Monarch butterflies.

This post is mainly about black swallowtails because it's too early for peak monarch season, but let me talk briefly about monarch butterflies anyway. Monarch butterflies need our help! Monarch populations have been declining in recent years for many reasons, most notably loss of habitat. Monarch caterpillars depend on milkweeds for survival as they are the only host plant. Milkweed has a bad rap, I grew up with my grandpas telling me not to spread the seeds because it was just a weed. Now we know how important milkweed is for monarchs and other pollinators. If you have a garden, consider adding some milkweed. You'd be helping to support monarchs and their awesome migration (they fly south to Mexico every fall) which is at risk. If you want to learn more about it, check out Monarch Watch, a great educational site that even has information about free milkweed for schools and organizations. 

Click here for a Monarch lesson from a few years back.

Rethink weeds: Butterfly weed is a milkweed with beautiful flowers that will also host monarch caterpillars.

I've already had a bunch of black swallowtails. Host plants for black swallowtail butterflies include fennel, parsley, dill, and carrots. I started with parsley and dill but now that I have fennel, it seems to be the favorite. Some good choices for easy to grow nectar plants are coneflowers, black-eyed susans, sunflowers, cosmos, and zinnias.

Several stages of the Black Swallowtail caterpillar starting with an egg on the left and ending with a chrysalis on the right.

Black swallowtail caterpillars are really fun to watch because they go through so many changes. Black swallowtail caterpillars have 5 instars, or stages they go through when they shed skin they have outgrown and take on a new appearance. I've been trying to get a photo with a caterpillar at each instar and always seem to be missing one. Above is a sample of all the different stages I had a couple days ago. The two in the middle are in the same instar but the one on the right is a day or two older. On the far right is a chrysalis hanging on a twig. Black swallowtail can pupate into a bright green or a brown chrysalis. Some say it depends on their setting, they may turn the color most likely to camouflage them, but I've had both colors in the exact same setting.

Black Swallowtail caterpillar eggs

I started paying attention to my fennel and found my first caterpillar egg this year! Since then I've seen females laying eggs (see first photo) and have found several more to bring inside. I found 9 eggs alone this morning just perched on the edge of the fennel. Whenever I try to get a photo of eggs on the fennel outside, it ends up being too windy, so here is a picture taken in my small enclosure inside.

Black Swallowtail caterpillar stretching to enjoy some fennel.

I've brought a few caterpillars inside each year, but never as many as this year! My oldest son is old enough now, 3 1/2, to really appreciate what's going on. He checks on the caterpillars and talks to them all the time. This is a GREAT early science experience. He's been able to see every stage of the butterfly life cycle and can even tell you about the "chrysalis".

Let me tell you something REALLY cool about black swallowtail caterpillars. See that orange blob in the picture? It's called an osmeterium and the caterpillars push it out when they feel threatened. It also releases a scent. I don't think it smells bad, it's just noticeable. You can also see that the caterpillar above has just shed it's skin from the 4th instar (on the stick behind it) and is in the last stage before pupation.

Close up of Black Swallowtail Butterfly wing.

I've always just rigged something up to keep a couple caterpillars in, but this year I wanted to find something larger so I could raise more caterpillars. My grandpa had an old fish tank in his barn so my kind mother cleaned it up for me and it's currently housing my larger caterpillars, including one getting ready to pupate. It will be nice so that the butterflies have a bit more room to move around if I don't happen to be home to release them as soon as they emerge. Did you know that when a butterfly comes out of his/her chrysalis it has "eclosed"? I just learned that word. :)

After some time has passed (usually around 2 weeks) the chrysalis will turn black and you know that the butterfly will eclose soon. When the butterflies emerge, they hang around for a while, pumping fluid into their wings and letting them dry out. Once the wings are totally dry, it is safe to release the butterfly. I let this one go after my kids went to bed because I was afraid of waiting until morning, not having my larger enclosure yet. If a butterfly starts getting agitated and trying to fly away but it's not a good time- bad weather, etc., you can keep them in the dark and they usually chill out.

A Black Swallowtail butterfly at the top of a twig that also holds a chrysalis 

To finish off this post, I'd like to share my Top 5 Reasons to Raise Caterpillars, followed by a plea.

Top 5 Reasons to Raise Caterpillars

1. Get your kids excited about science.
2. Observe a miracle of nature.
3. Photo Opps!
4. Support pollinators. (butterfly gardens will also support bees and other pollinators)
5. "Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar." -Bradley Miller

And now the plea. If you do find a caterpillar and decide to raise it, PLEASE identify it and make sure that you have the correct host plant. You can't get away with just throwing some random leaves in a jar with it and hoping it will make it. Your kids would be really disappointed to wake up to a dead caterpillar. Don't know what kind of caterpillar you have? Check out this FREE Caterpillar Identification Tool from Discover Life!

4th Grade Butterfly Life Cycle Clay Sculptures

This year I wanted to try something new for my 4th grade clay lesson. I was having a hard time making a decision with lots of possible ideas, so I asked the 4th grade teachers for important topics they cover. The one that caught my eye, was studying the life cycle of butterflies.

The students' assignment was to use slabs and/or coils and attachments to illustrate at least one phase of a butterfly's life cycle. We also talked about 3D vs. 2D and how they should really give their project some form or it might as well just be on paper. Most of the students made a slab that looks like a leaf and attached eggs or a caterpillar to it. The slabs were curved up to make a shallow dish. Some got more sculptural. The students had one class period to build and the next to paint. I did not give any requirements about paint colors since they didn't have to represent a real species.

 I can't wait to try this again next year... because I kind of messed up this year. I thought I had leftover air dry clay from last year, but it was only a box or 2. The rest was accidentally from 2 YEARS AGO! Needless to say, it was very crumbly and the students had to work lots of water back in to it. I did manage to improve some of the clay after I got the tip to wrap it up tight with wet sponges in the bag.

This student made his caterpillar the same color as his leaf on purpose and called it a "Camo-pillar."

 This student tried to show every stage. I think there was a chrysalis on the back side.

Did you know that caterpillars eat their eggs after they hatch? The students taught me that!

Kindergarten Butterflies

Back in the end of September/beginning of October I did a butterfly lesson with my Kindergarten students. I had recently seen two different butterfly projects that inspired me and the timing was great since the monarch butterflies were really moving through Kansas. I even took a chrysalis to school and though we missed the butterfly actually emerging, the students were really excited to see a REAL butterfly! They named her Dotty. Now back to the lesson... My project was inspired by the following lessons. One from Artsonia, and one from There's a Dragon in my Art Room and her original inspiration was from Art Project Girl.

Source: artsonia.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: plbrown.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

This was a 3 class period project and while we managed, it was a bit stressful at times. If I do this project again, (as-is, anyway) I would probably save it for 1st grade. It had a lot of good things to introduce- mixing colors, horizontal and vertical, cutting and gluing, etc., but it was a little too much for a lot of my Kindergarteners still fairly early in the year.

Class 1- Introduction to landscape, drawing a horizon line, painting blue sky and green grass. 

I projected some photos of landscapes to show the students and focused on pointing out the horizon line. I told them that the horizon line is where the sky comes alllll the way down to touch the ground. I knew that this would be a knew concept for most of them since I still have 5th graders occasionally draw the big empty space between the sky and the ground but something happened that I didn't expect. A little boy raised his hand and when I called on him he said "I don't believe you." It took me by surprise because usually younger students just eat up everything you say! As soon as he said that other students saying they didn't believe. Luckily I have some big windows in my classroom so I pulled up the blinds and had one table at a time come look outside so I could PROVE that the sky comes down to touch the ground. The rest of the first class was painting the grass and the sky.

We had to put papers on the floor to dry. I have since purchased an additional drying rack and some cheap closet shelves.

Class 2- Mixing yellow and blue paint to make green, painting phonebook pages and adding texture, mixing red and yellow to make orange, turning "B"s into butterflies.

I gave each student a half piece of yellow construction paper folded in half. I wanted to have them paint a "B" on one side that would be painted and folded to print on the other side ensuring a symmetrical butterfly. To get all the students to put their B on the correct side, I had them fold their paper "like a book". I demonstrated how to write a capital letter B and the students wrote their letter on their paper in pencil. I checked each one to make sure it was on the fold not the open side then had them open their "books." Next I showed how to paint mixed orange tempera paint inside the B, fold, and press to transfer paint to the other side. Next we mixed green paint and used texture combs that would later be turned into grass. I had painted on newspaper before but decided to try phonebooks because I always see people trying to get rid of them. It worked OK but the paper was flimsier than newspaper and curled a bit when dried. 

Class 3- Review horizontal and vertical, cutting phonebook pages into strips, gluing "grass" to background, cutting and gluing butterflies on top of grass, turning butterflies into Monarchs with black and white oil pastels, adding purple flowers with oil pastels.

 I was amazed at how many kids cut their butterflies in half (and at how many different ways they discovered to cut the butterflies in half) but I just tried to show them how to make the pieces touch when they glued them in place. I reminded the students how monarch butterflies are orange with black and white designs and if there was time, the students used oil pastels to add details to their butterflies. Then if there was STILL time, I reviewed secondary colors and the students used purple oil pastels to add flowers.

 

Student who missed the 1st class used solid blue for the background.

Stray ladybug hanging out with the butterflies.

You can view more examples in our Artsonia exhibit.

Some Kansas Photos

I started a Project 365 in January... then when the migraines and nausea from my pregnancy kicked in, I missed some days and decided this was not the year to take on such a project!  Now that I've been feeling better, I've been taking photos again.  I have had really good luck the last couple of weeks (now that it is occasionally cool enough to spend some time outside!) so I decided to share a few photos until I have some finished school projects to write about.

^My favorite!

First Grade Symmetrical Butterflies

I was thinking about how to tie different kinds of lines and shapes together for a fun 1st grade project. I decided to use butterflies to tie in math not only with geometric shapes but with symmetry. I found a cool animation on a website that showed a butterflies wings being folded to match up and then opening to show symmetry. First the students folded their paper in half and then drew only the outline of half a butterfly on one side. Introducing the project and just the first step took a whole class period. Several students could not grasp only drawing half of the butterfly even though I had demonstrated, explained, and gave several reminders. I kept making them erase it until they had followed directions correctly. I think it was too tempting to have that much blank space on their papers! I reviewed the assignment and passed out oil pastels at the beginning of the next class period. I showed how to trace the outline with oil pastels, fold so it was on the inside of the paper sandwich, and burnish to transfer the lines to the other side for a perfectly symmetrical butterfly. Of course we had to trace back over the transfered line to make it dark enough but it was a lot closer to symmetrical than if both sides were drawn free hand. Next the students used crayons to draw lines and shapes on both sides of the wings. I encouraged them to do one line or shape at a time: draw a circle on the right wing, draw a circle in the same color on the opposite side so it would match if folded. After the lines and shapes were drawn, the students filled in the space with color and added a background.