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Blog Entry 10 of 25 No Child Left Inside
This blog is designed to let people know what we do here at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve - the educational programs we offer, the teacher workshops, the public programs, etc. If you haven't already visited, we hope you will soon - see you at the Woods!

Blog Url: http://buffalo.yourhub.com/~ReinsteinWoods

Emergence!

Contributed by: Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve   on 8/14/2007

OK, this just happened literally within this past hour here at the Reinstein Woods Education Center. My co-worker, Ginger, led a butterfly program this past weekend. In preparation for the program, she gathered some milkweed plants that had some monarch eggs on the leaves to put in a butterfly habitat inside the education center. Visitors to the center were able to view the developing caterpillars munching on the milkweed plants and on Wednesday, August 1st, we watched two of the caterpillars shed their last skin to form their cocoons. This skin like casing is also called a chrysalis. Since then, we've been watching the butterflies develop within the cocoons that were originally green and opaque. At the end theyweredark inside and almost clear outside.

Today, the two butterflies emerged!!! Both within minutes of each other. We missed the first one, but Ginger and I along with Michelle, our new Green Thumb co-worker, watched in awe as the second emerged and shed its cocoon. It took minutes for it to twirl around and spread its wings and will be ready to fly in a couple hours when we'll release them. We still have several caterpillars on the plants and one ready to start to form its chrysalis. Plus one chrysalis with a butterfly that will emerge within days.

Many students are able to witness this spectacle with painted lady butterflies in their classrooms as part of their Living Environment life cycle curricula. Those of us that either don't remember or didn't have that kind of hands on experience in school, haven't really ever witnessed this miracle of metamorphosis. So, for me, it's been a very exciting day so far!

A little more about monarchs... "three or more generations emerge each summer. Those eclosing in June and July have an adult life span of four to five weeks. In the north, the final generation of monarchs become adults in mid-August (now) through mid-September. Most of these butterflies are reproductively immature - in a state of reproductive diapause. They migrate to overwintering sites in Mexico and along the Pacific coast of California, where some survive up to eight months. A small population of reproductively active monarchs persists through the winter in the southern U.S. and in the lower elevations in the vicinity of the overwintering sites in Mexico." ( Milkweed, Monarchs and More by Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser, and Michael A. Quinn)

Here's a cool link to more info and photos about monarchs -
http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/MBUSA.htm

Very exciting indeed...stop on by our education center to get a glimpse before they're all released.

~ your friendly Reinstein Woods educator - Lauren

I attached a bunch of photos - make sure to scroll through them all!


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Nancy Buck
posted on 8/10/2008 @ 6:37:33 AM
(Not Rated)
Thanks Lauren for directing me this blog! Amazing photos! I learned a lot from it, and it will help me improve my teaching of the painted lady unit this fall. Nancy
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Submitted By: Deanna Russo
posted on 8/17/2007 @ 1:56:07 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Great blog!!! You are this week's Share Your Summer Story winner!
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
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Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve has posted 25 blog entries and 4 comments since joining on 2/8/2007. Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve 's average blog rating is 5.
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