My Pet Butterflies

Last summer I found some caterpillars. I put them in my terrarium. I forgot all about them until a few weeks latter when I found a chrysalis in my under the window sill above the terrarium. A few days latter I found a chrysalis in my terrarium. It was puzzling how one got out and one stayed in, but I guess it wasn't very hard for a clever little caterpillar. Then I forgot about the chrysalises until sometime just before Christmas when I saw a butterfly in my terrarium. I was puzzled because it had hatched in the winter. It had snowed just a few days before, so I couldn't let it outside because of the cold. It would probably die immediately, so I left it inside. Before long it took a liking to the Christmas tree. It liked the bright lights and thought they were flowers. It lived a few weeks, and then it died. You can see a photo of it on the Christmas tree on my mom's blog.

After another month had passed, I was doing school and looked over at the window sill. I saw a little tiny butterfly, about 1/8 of a centimeter wide and 1 centimeter long. I thought it was immature and dead. But after school I looked at the window sill. I saw a butterfly that was newly hatched and drying it's wings. Mama took a picture of it, and you can can see it at the top of this post. After a few hours it flew away. I checked on it. It wanted to land on the hot lamps so many times, I was afraid it would burn up, but it had another fate. My cat CeCe liked to chase things. One day when the butterfly was resting by a warm window sill, CeCe attacked her. She tore off part of the wings and butterfly couldn't fly and after a little while it died. It was an European Cabbage Butterfly.

Here are some interesting facts about the European Cabbage Butterfly. It was introduced accidentally in the 1860's near Montreal, Canada. It's caterpillar likes to eat cabbage and broccoli and other plants in the cabbage family. It's wing span is 1 1/8" to 2". Wings are yellowish white with a few black dots. The caterpillar is green and 1 3/8" long. You can find it all over North America.