About three weeks ago, while cleaning out the gardens, I came across a green caterpillar. Evie is obsessed with bugs, so I picked up the caterpillar, and placed it in a jar with a few different types of leaves. I noticed that the caterpillar preferred daisy leaves. So, I dug up a small daisy plant and put it in some dirt in the bottom of the jar. After a couple of days, the caterpillar had sealed himself within a leaf. I thought at first that he might just be protecting himself as he ate, but, apparently, he had built a cocoon for himself. It was not until I came home one day to find a moth sitting in the jar that I realized he had been spending his days in the leaf transforming.
I showed Evie the moth, then we placed the jar outside, on the railing of the deck. Thankfully, the day he emerged was warm and sunny. He stayed in the jar for a few hours, then eventually flew away. I picked the leaf he had enveloped himself in out of the jar and opened it for Evie to see the cocoon.
It was fun to see the transformation and share it with Evie. I did a Google search on the caterpillar shortly after finding him, so I knew to expect a moth to emerge. I think he was kind of cool looking, for a moth.
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