By Katie & Wendy
June 19, 1997
June 19 Our first caterpillar changed into a chysalis today! It looks neat hanging from the top of the cup! He must have crawled up there when we were eating, and it changed by the time we were done with our breakfast. (That takes about an hour). The chrysalis is small and it is light brown it looks like. It wiggles once in a while. Today we learned about the how a caterpillar grows and changes into a butterfly. The first thing that we learned is that cocoon's don't come from butterflies. Moths spin cocoons; butterflies change into "chrysalides". A cocoon has silk around it. A chrysalis doesn't have silk around it. Caterpillar's spin silk from their mouths. When you see a caterpillar moving his head from side to side he is spinning silk! We learned that most insects change as they grow. There are growing stages that the caterpillar's go through. There are 4 growing changes with our caterpillar's. First they were an egg that the mommy butterfly made and left on a leaf or something else. Then the egg hatches and it is a caterpillar. When it is a caterpillar it eats a lot. It grows fast to. When it is done eating and growing it rests. That's when it goes to the top of the cup and it spins silk and then hangs upside down like a "j". Then he turns into a chrysalis. (The caterpillar actually splits his skin and underneath is the chrysalis. It is soft at first, but then it hardens up a bit like a shell. It protects the caterpillar and is a place where it can change.) The caterpillar's feet have tiny little hooks on the end and that is what they hold onto the threads of silk with. It keeps them from falling down to. Another bug that spins silk is a spider. Wendy says that people use silk to make clothes, but I don't understand how they do that.