Caterpillar into butterfly: proving metamorphosis works to a 3 year-old (almost 4!)
We've read about it, and like most of us he knows the theory. But is it for real? Like tadpoles growing into frogs, caterpillars turn into butterflies. Yeah, right. As if. So we carefully captured a fat stripey caterpillar and temporarily relocated him/her/it from a ficus in a pot to a plastic bug holder. Within 2 days we had a lumpy blobby chrysalis that dried overnight to a dramatic gold sheen. And a week or so later emerged a Common Crow butterfly (black with white spots). Theory turned into practice, we let the butterfly flutter by, off to sip nectar somewhere nice....
