Well, Here We Go . . .

The caterpillars arrived around 10:30am via FedEx.

I will admit that this . . . task of doing two seminars and then a formal presentation in the evening of one day keeps me up at night a bit. I sometimes can't turn my mind off to relax, worrying about juggling a handful of things to make this happen.

I certainly have the experience. I have worked with hundreds of animals in my 40 years - from reptiles to insects, from birds to arachnids. But raising something this fragile leaves me a bit uneasy.

When I was first approached to do something around butterfly gardening, I thought right away about laying out a garden . . . but it would be an all-Ohio native garden, the way it should be. No Buddleia . . . and I would use grasses and trees too. Make people look and think "why is he using grasses?" and then explain why. But the evening presentation requested live insects.

My first thought to that was 'no'. I will not take anything out of the wild for exhibition. Butterflies have lifespans of days or weeks mostly. Sometimes a few months. And during that time they have to not only feed themselves and avoid predators, but they have to procreate as well. They have to work to find something that will provide sustenance not only to themselves, but their progeny too. Besides, most Ohio natives are not really flitting about until it gets good and warm out, so . . .

Then the option to actually buy butterflies comes into play, including the magnificent monarch. And the more you read, the more you realize that buying monarchs for weddings or presentations is really a pretty horrific thing to do. They are so fragile . . . but beyond that, monarchs are travelers, migrants. Insects born in one area leave at a certain time to fly to a certain place. How bad do you mess them up when you take them out of their environment?

Then I stumbled upon Vanessa cardui, the painted lady. (As a quick aside, they are very closely related to the red admiral, Vanessa atalanta, one of which seems to be courting Kim in the greenhouse at Delhi). They are smaller than monarchs, but science has actually figured out how to manufacture a culture for them to be raised on. This allows classrooms to observe the full life cycle of this little insect. And to boot, they are native to Ohio. Perfect, with one drawback - the adult butterfly has a lifespan of two weeks. So I not only have to try and raise them, but I have to time it right as well.

After much reading (one of my life mottos, you can never read enough) and a phone call, I decided to order a batch of about 30 caterpillars from a biological supply house that I was familiar with. I think I have the timing of it down right.

They arrived in a simple, small brown box stamped with the appropriate labels. Once I got home I opened it to find two plastic cups - one with the caterpillars and one with their 'food'. The culture they are being raised on is a gelatinous goop that smells like dog biscuits. From the main cup, each caterpillar is placed in its own cup that is about 1.75" wide by an inch tall using a paint brush as gently as you can. The bottom of the cup has a bed of this 'goop', and then a lid is placed on top.

I was told that the supply house ships 30 caterpillars plus a few extra as some perish during the two day trip. However, by the time I was finished I had 40 caterpillars. If I can successfully raise half of them I will be happy.

Most of them appeared to be in either their second or third instar. An instar measures the growth of a caterpillar, and the painted lady has four instars. So I would hope that they become chrysalis by the end of this month. That would be a good thing.

They are a bit unnerving to watch. Because they are going through so much, growing at a truly incredible rate, they often go through prolonged periods of simply sitting still. Adding to that, most caterpillars have the inbred desire to be active at night versus the day so that they can avoid being eaten. So while they were all alive when I transferred them into their new homes, looking at them now leaves you thinking 'aren't you little grubs supposed to be rumbling around stuffing your little faces?!?'

I look forward to checking in on them in the morning.