Butterflies!

As long as I can remember, I have loved butterflies. I have raise many different kinds over the years. Butterflies are called insects. Insects have three body parts, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. They also have 3 pairs of legs. Some have wings, but not all of them. Most insects go through what is called a complete metamorphosis which mean a change from one form to another.

There are many different kinds of butterflies throughout the world. They come in many different colors. Some even have clear see-through wings! There are butterflies as big as a bird and some as small as a dime. Each butterfly has a special kind of plant or plants that its caterpillars likes to eat. Some eat tree leaves. Some like to eat flowers. You might even find caterpillars eating your vegetables in your garden. When a butterfly becomes an adult, they like to drink nectar from flowers. If you plant a flower garden like Papaw’s, you will probably see all kinds of different butterflies. You may even have a humming bird come visit!

When Papaw lived in Arizona he used to volunteer at a place called Butterfly Wonderland. You could say I was a "butterfly whisperer". I would show people all the different butterflies that were in the conservatory and sometimes they even got to hold a butterfly on a special nectar stick. Here is a picture of Papaw with a bunch of his butterfly friends. Butterflies don't bite and they can't hurt you. They tickle if they land on your skin. We used to call them buttery kisses. It was so much fun!

One of my favorite butterflies is the Gulf Fritillary. They start as eggs which the mother lays on the leaves of its host plant called passionflower. The egg hatches into a caterpillar that eats and grows. The caterpillars of the Gulf Fritillary have soft spines all over their backs. This may help keep predators away. 

After about two weeks, when the caterpillars have grown big enough, they stop eating and hang from a branch or leaf in a “J” shape. Soon they form a chrysalis. Here they rest and all of their body gets rearranged inside. After another 2 weeks they eclose (come out of thee chrysalis and are now a butterfly. What an amazing transformation!

The Bible says that in Heaven we will have new, glorified bodies. We won’t get sleepy, we won’t get hungry, (but we can still eat!) and we will never die. That kind of make us like caterpillars I guess. Someday we will get to transform just like a butterfly when we are in heaven.

Here are some butterfly pictures you can color. Be sure to color in the lines and make them beautiful!

Love, Papaw