Butterflies!

A few weeks ago Madison found this critter devouring the leaves on the orange tree in our yard:

Of course, he had to be brought inside and put in a jar to be studied thoroughly... we gave him some of the orange leaves that he loved so much and the kids had to check his progress often. I guess he was a little shy, though, because he waited until we left the house the next day to change into his chrysalis. Everyone was disappointed to have missed the event, so we looked it up on YouTube! You can see what he did, here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U4V_locq3yY

All the information I could find about butterflies said that he should stay that way for about two weeks, but just one week later we woke up and found this in the jar:

It is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly ~ Madison's favorite. We were disappointed to have missed the transformation once again, but YouTube came to the rescue again (http://youtube.com/watch?v=vjvR_Mt4z8Q&feature=related). He did oblige us by sitting very still for quite a while on the branch of one of our trees after we let him out of the jar. We were able to examine him very closely while he warmed up and got ready to fly away.

Last week Madison found a giant Tomato Hornworm on the tomatoes (where else would it be?) and insisted on bringing it in for observation as well (ewww!). After a day or so it stopped eating and seemed to be looking for something - I did a quick search and discovered that they form their chrysalis underground. We took everything out of his jar and put in a few inches of dirt for him and put him back in. Within a few hours he had dug himself a hole and settled in for his nap. Apparently they turn into a big moth....