When it was time for the Painted Lady butterflies to emerge, we kept missing the actual act of them coming out of the chrysalis. My husband hooked up a video with time lapse to catch the act in case we missed it. It was a good idea because we did miss it and were able to replay it on video. It is above. We figured that the butterfly would have to emerge rather quickly so that it didn't get eaten by predators. We watched them strengthen their wings and flutter about the enclosure. They even survived an attack from our husky that wanted to 'play' with them in the net.
Today we let the butterflies go. We had 5 and only stuck around for a little while to drink from the apple and the flowers we had blooming. The other 4 flew off and we hoped they didn't get eaten by all of the Swallows that were flying around.
This butterfly that stayed behind sat on both of the boys finger for a little while. It was exciting. They both loved having this experience. Mr Z didn't want them to fly away. He yelled at them to come back. But, I tried to explain that they need their freedom because they would not survive at home with us. Later that day, one of them came back to visit but flew off again as the boys were trying to get it back to the flowers. It was great to see it for probably one last time.
His long proboscis gathering some apple juice from the slice to gain some energy and strength.
