Caterpillars 3 - updates

As I'm writing this, I have already released 3 butterflies. One more aka me is still in the container, all alone. I think tomorrow morning I will see it coz' the chrysalis has somewhat changed colour the last time I saw - ahem....5 mins ago.

In my previous post I mentioned that papa butterfly greeted me early in the morning. I might as well bring papa to school and let the children see it. A small request to Teacher Mamta for a short disruption to her curriculum before i let it go. Children were excited but they were not allowed to touch it coz' mama butterfly is sleeping.

It was out from chrysalis for almost 2 hours and no sun, MH told me to bring it out for sun-tanning without sunblock to dry out wings. I don't know if papa butterfly was a solar butterfly but it was flapping its' wings more when I brought it under the sun. And thank goodness I brought it to Tampines coz it was cloudy in Punggol.

Soon, it was time to let papa go free. It's funny..... last week when I brought the caterpillars home, KZ thought I was going to keep the butterflies as pets. Well, to me anything with wings - I'd let them go coz' they're meant to be free.

Papa was hesistant in leaving. And if I had stayed on longer under the hot sun, I would have suffered from heat stroke. My children looked for a short while before running off to play. Haha! KZ was so funny, she felt it was too long and she started sharing a gospel to papa butterfly.
"Jesus said you're free to go. All your XX burdens have been lifted off. Fly, fly!" Red are what I said for her coz' she couldn't phrase her sentence in English. I thought it was hilarious to share a gospel to a butterfly

My best shot of papa butterfly
About to fly off

What's left is mama butterfly (to the left of this picture)

When we got back home, one of the 2 sisters was flapping its wings. I thought "oh no! am I going to waste my time the whole day releasing them?"

Aricia with che-che butterfly

Aricia was not afraid whilst Athena was so frightened. Though must admit I didn't dare to open the cover for fear of Aricia killing the butterfly.
Somehow I kept looking at the sister and noticed it didn't look as nice as papa butterfly and suspect it must be of different gender. But what gender I had no idea but suspected it might be female coz' usually the 'mu' animals don't look nice.

Soon..........at first I thought it was my shaky hands but I soon realise that another sister is trying to emerge itself. Contrary to what MH said, this didn't shake vigorously prior to emerging. I tried taking photos of it but the container is blurry. And not to mention video taping - I don't even have a video cam!! Had to rely on camera's video...but still not clear. Athena was excited but frightened, exclaiming "mei-mei, mei-mei you come out already. mei-mei you see- you come out already." Mei-mei came to the container and I had to bring it above her eye level just in case she made mei-mei giddy inside.

Umm..........same colour. I saw how the butterfly wings grew in size. Oh no! Mama butterfly might emerge tonight? or tomorrow? I tried my 5 mins suggestion to mama butterfly telling her not to come out so fast. Haha! If sharing a gospel was ridiculous, I even did a 5 mins power of suggestion to mama butterfly. Oohh.......

Before the butterfly can be let go, I was about to close my eyes. Took a nap first, I was really tired. It was suppose to be a 2-hour nap, ended up 4 hours. I didn't even hear my handphone alarm going off.
Poor butterflies, they waited too long for me and couldn't bring them under the "what where is the sun". Finally let it go off at 6+. By then it was getting dark and the 2 sisters were flapping their wings. I didn't want KZ to open the lid too quickly for fear of not being able to capture it on camera.

Told them to stay together and take care of one another. Siao! They paused a moment and flew away in different directions. sob sob...........

The two sisters are really sisters leh! In the night, after I was free I logged in to check on the breed Leopard Lacewing. I realised papa butterfly was really a male. And the two sisters are females. So now will have to wait and see if mama butterfly is a female or a tom-boy. Hee!

Click on these :
Naturephotosociety.org.sg
Leopard Lacewing