The Butterfly Club: "Is That You?"

Before a caterpillar is even born, a butterfly mother prepares for its birth just as any good mother would prepare for her own baby to come into the world. A mother butterfly instinctively knows that as soon as her caterpillar emerges from the egg, it will be hungry just like any other baby. She also knows that the only food caterpillars are able to eat is milkweed, so she wisely searches until she finds a milkweed plant and lays her egg directly on its leaves.

For the first two weeks after a caterpillar is born, it eats and eats until it grows big enough to form an outer shell around itself made of hardened protein. This shell is called a chrysalis and takes a caterpillar about ten to fourteen days to form. Inside the chrysalis, a caterpillar’s body begins to evolve in a process called metamorphosis, a big word that means to change in shape. And change it does, as its body grows wings and slowly transforms its old body parts into a butterfly!

Imagine the stages of a baby monarch’s exciting journey, from a little egg on a leaf, to a caterpillar living on the ground, to an adult butterfly that can soar! A caterpillar’s life is extraordinary and the most wondrous part is that all along, this little egg has all it needs within itself to fulfill these remarkable and amazing stages. And yet, in spite of all this, our help is sometimes needed. Today, the Monarch’s search for milkweed is getting more and more difficult as milkweed slowly disappears from its natural habitat. By planting milkweed in our own backyards we can all help to insure their survival. Planting nectar-rich flowers as a food source will also guarantee an adult monarch’s strength for fall migrations.

Websites like www.saveourmonarchs.org and Milkweed Growing Guide www.gardnerspath.com can help to guide you. And Caterpillar will be very grateful!

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Caterpillar’s friends were ready! Each had found the perfect Halloween costume. Kind Cricket even thought of a way Walking Stick could trick-or-treat with them for the first time. Will Caterpillar be able to find her own perfect costume? This delightful book is sure to conjure up all those Halloween feelings we remember so well!

A Halloween story for any time of year; friends helping each other, kindness, and the rewards of patience! After reading the story, perhaps your child will one day see a Monarch and whisper, “Caterpillar, is that you?”

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