Mason the caterpillar emerged from it’s cocoon yesterday. Sadly, none of us were around to see him actually break through the cocoon, but there was a new moth in the jar and a hole in the cocoon, so we’re pretty sure that this is the new Mason:
He was much cuter as a caterpillar. In fact, having to look at all the pictures I took of Mason the Moth on my enormous Mac screen has made my skin crawl. Sadly, I think I may be adding moths to my list of stay-away-from-these-at-all-costs list.
Mason seemed large for his small jar, so we transferred him to a newer, cleaner, bigger jar (with fresh oak leaves for him to enjoy).
Here’s what we learned while we observed our caterpillar build his cocoon and finally emerge from his cocoon.
- It took a little over 2 weeks for the entire metamorphosis to occur (17 days)
- Those two weeks of waiting are pretty boring (nothing happens on the outside)
- Cocoons don’t require any up-keep
- Cocoons and crysalis’ look very different from each other
- Moths come from cocoons (A chrysalis is a butterfly pupa. A cocoon is a silk case that moths create around themselves)
- Moths enjoy oak leaves (we got to go outside and find some oak leaves for Mason)
- Moths can be pets (the kids are loving Mason)
Reese will be taking Mason in to her classroom tomorrow. The second grade is doing an extensive butterfly unit and they have been watching butterflies emerge this last week. We thought it would be fun to let the other kids see the differences between moths and butterflies, cocoons and crysalis’. And then we’ll let Mason go free.
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You can look at any photo, but until you actually see it, it is so breath taking. Good article and will for sure share your site. Thanks for the info. We will forever appreciate nature’s beauty.
That’s a moth? Oh my, he looks huge! And furry…
I’m torn between squeeing over a new pet and shrieking at bug faces…