That night we put it into Heidi's butterfly house for safe keeping. She wanted to show it off to Grandma and Grandpa and to take it over to Pat's house. Since it was already late we told her we would do all of that the next morning, put the butterfly house in her room and went to bed.
When we got up the next morning it looked like this:
It cocooned so quickly we were not able to show it off or take pictures of it. I am not sure what kind of moth it will be if it ever does hatch.The night it was a caterpillar it was very large, bigger than a man's middle finger, and it was green. It did not have hair and I don't recall what the legs looked like. But it's size was amazing. I kept thinking of the Very Hungry Caterpillar book.
Heidi brought it to school for show and tell at the end of the first week. Her teacher said that she had caterpillars like this before and they never came out of their cocoons. She also said that her sister had some that came out after hibernating all winter.
Now I am wondering how long we should keep this thing before we decide it's not coming out. If it hatches before the winter is over we will not be able to put it outside. Looks like we will have it until the spring and then have to figure out what to do with it.
Oh, the joys of having a insect loving daughter and a biology loving husband... :)
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