Day 3: Science, My Favorite Subject

Today was hectic, but not because of things like yesterday.  I haven't been sleeping great so I woke up later than I should have for a day where I had to get Autumn ready for her first day of preschool this year.  She needs to be there at 9 but its only a mile and a half away from our house.  I came down, made breakfast, made coffee, and checked on the 5 Painted Lady chrysaliseseses that we have been waiting on to hatch.  I figured they had another day or so left when I looked at them yesterday.  Today they looked very dark and I could see some wing detail through 4 out of 5 of them (one caterpillar was later than the others).

I took the high heeled shoe jewelry hanger that I had strung them on out of its protective mesh house and set it on the counter so I could photograph them.  I went up to get my camera and find the dioptic attachment that would allow me to take extreme closeups with my Nikon D7000 and 18-55mm kit lens.  This is the same method I used when I did all those monarchs last year.

Diopter attachment with step-down ring

A side note about the diopters/dioptics:  They are similar to holding a magnifying glass up to your lens.  They are extremely cheap, about $12 for a set of 4 differing strengths on Amazon.com.  They only seem to work well on my 18-55mm kit lens extended to 55mm.  They do not work on my longer telephoto lens but I've never tried one on my prime lenses.  I bought the wrong size of diopters about 4 years ago and they collected dust until I found out about step up and step down rings, which are thin plastic rings that screw on to your lens to make up for missing millimeters.  They are also very cheap, only a couple of dollars on Amazon.  LIFESAVERS when you have an expensive filter or unique attachment that is not quite the right size.  I used to use duct tape.

When I came downstairs Alicia yelled "MOM there's a butterfly!!"

 Little stinker had emerged in the 5 minutes I had gone upstairs!!  I looked at the clock.  It was 8:35am.  I had not yet gotten Autumn ready for school other than feeding her.  I looked at the chrysalises, then back at Autumn, then at the clock.  "Autumn, go get dressed and go pee!" I yelled.  She ran upstairs so I whipped out the camera and started taking photos of the new butterfly and the remaining chrysalises.

One looked like it was about to emerge and I had to go so I set up my tripod and had Alicia stand post to take photos in case one came out.

You can see where the skin of the chrysalis is beginning to "unzip" in this photo

I dropped Autumn off at preschool and hurried back home.  Alicia was delightedly standing in the chair saying "One hatched Mommy!  I got TONS of pictures of it!"  I had showed her how to take photos for a time lapse video.  She took 105 pictures to make this time lapse:

Unfortunately it was focused on the wrong chrysalis but that's ok.  She did it all by herself.

Her idea next was to draw what the hanging, drying butterfly looked like.  I showed her the eye spots, and how the spiracles that we could see on the chrysalis had translated into spiracles that were present on the abdomen of the butterfly.  We also looked at its probiscus (tongue) as it curled and uncurled it, almost as if it was playing with it!

See the small slits on each segment of the abdomen?  Those are the spiracles that the butterfly breathes through!

You can see the curled up probiscus flanked by the butterfly's tiny little forelegs in this photo

The 4 eye spots and the scales of the butterfly's wings are visible in this photo

I decided to hang the next chrysalis that looked ready to go on the same hook I use for my coffee creamer measuring.  It is near the window and I figured it would be easier to photograph than being on the jewelry hanger.

Can you spot the chrysalis?

Here is a short video of the first one I hung there emerging:

My camera is NOT known for its video capabilities, and unfortunately you can hear my lens struggling to keep up with focusing so I suggest you watch it on mute as that noise gets irritating.  Its cool to see the little guy come out though.

Something else we observed was that once the butterfly had been hanging there for a bit a few drops of what I call "Butterfly Blood" but is really just excess "frass" drips out of their...butts:

As each butterfly hatched I would let one dry and then when it seemed that its wings were stiff enough I moved it into the Butterfly Pavilion where I placed a potted plant and a vase of Cosmos from my garden. 

 Each butterfly would hang for a while and then it would start pumping its wings and turn itself upright.  It takes 12 hours for their wings to completely stiffen.

This one is a female.  You can tell because males have more colorful eye spots on the bottom half of their wings.  Females also have thicker abdomens.

This is what the chrysalis looks like after it has been opened and emptied:

Back (dorsal) view

Front view

All in all it was a lot of fun to hatch these guys!  Not quite as rewarding as finding the eggs outside and raising them all the way through but it made my day to both see them myself and see Alicia appreciating the process and being involved and interested in them.  She is usually terrified of insects so I'm hoping this will give her a greater appreciation for them.  I'm looking forward to next year and will order a variety of butterfly eggs/caterpillars starting much earlier in the season.

Oh and she did some math today completely at her own pace and did an excellent job.  :)

Here is a great link for Painted Lady and other butterfly rearing info!