We have been observing the monarch life cycle and taking pictures. We used Zoomy again to take this picture when the caterpillar was in its first instar. Caterpillars have an exoskeleton that does not stretch as they grow so they have to molt or crawl out of their exoskeleton. Monarch caterpillars molt 5 times so they have 5 instars. Now our caterpillar is in it's second instar. It is about 4mm long - so small we still needed to use Zoomy to take the picture! Our caterpillars keep eating and growing! We are fortunate to have so many monarchs to observe! They have prolegs that are like velcro so they can crawl up plants and not fall down. This caterpillar is molting for the last time. This time it reveals a chrysalis under the exoskeleton. Look on our home page for a video of the last molt. This is what a chrysalis looks like after the molting is complete and right before the butterfly emerges. It takes about 2 weeks for the caterpillar to go through complete metamorphosis and become a butterfly! When the butterfly first emerges it is wrinkled and wet. This butterfly has pumped up its wings with fluid from its abdomen. It will not be able to fly until its wings are dry. That usually takes about 2 hours. We tag our butterflies with tiny stickers from Monarch Watch to help scientists learn more about the migration of monarchs. If someone finds our monarch they will let us know where it is found. Some monarchs migrate 3,000 miles from Canada to their winter home in Mexico! Gotta Go, Gotta Go, Gotta Go to Mexico!
3 Comments
7/25/2020 09:48:29 am
Couldn't be written any better. Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
Reply
7/27/2020 02:26:33 am
It is a very profitable post for me. I've enjoyed reading the post. It is very informative and useful post. I would like to visit the post once more its valuable content.
Reply
7/29/2020 02:15:33 am
What a great web blog . I like this blog because of its design and interface. It is user friendly and it is nice to visit the blog.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWe are a second grade class at Hill Elementary School. Archives
September 2015
Categories |