Sharing Butterflies, Sewing, and Butterfly Surprises

The butterflies have now lived past the time we read they should live, so we think we should let them have at least a day or two of freedom before they reach the end of their short lives (about 4 weeks total). But first we took them out and had some fun holding them and looking at them up close. Sunny and Ida are so wonderfully gentle with them. Here are the two sisters sharing a butterfly, pasing it back and forth.

Later in the day we did some sewing.

The sugarwater-soaked paper towels that we had placed in the butterfly pavilion had what looked at first to me like spores of mold. However, after calling Insectlore, the company that provided me with the five original caterpillars, I learned that the spores were actually butterfly eggs!!!

They were extremely tiny. Here is just one (sorry it's out of focus) next to a penny.

After my phonecall with Insectlore, I looked more carefully, and some of the eggs had actually hatched!!! There were little miniscule caterpillars all over . . . and they were so tiny, that they could go right through the holes in the net of the pavilion.

Here's one next to a penny. So tiny!

I learned that they like to eat thistle, which fortunately grows plentifully in my garden. In no time they made the thistle leaves look like lace.