Our Butterfly Release

Thanks to Jeffrey and his mom Nancy, we were able to watch a beautiful butterfly take flight on Thursday.  Nancy and Jeffrey have raised HUNDREDS of butterflies!  Here’s what she had to say about Henrietta:

Henrietta is an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly. She has blue spots on her wings and small yellow spots on the edges of her wings. This distinguishes her from the males, who have fewer and smaller blue spots and larger yellow ones. She was raised on Queen Anne's Lace, a common weed (which is a wild carrot) that grew in my garden. The swallowtail also likes to lay their eggs on carrots, parsley, fennel and dill. She had 4 siblings that went into chrysalis and then hatched at summer's end. They can make a green or brown chrysalis, which they attach to a stick or stem of a plant (usually) using 2 silk straps their body makes. She decided to not come out and spent the winter in our garage, first in Sterling Hts. and then here. On May 6, we brought her indoors and put her in a sunny window. She hatched on May 12. She didn't fly off when we first released her because she was hungry and needed energy. She also wanted to warm up in the sun. We got to watch her drink nectar from some dandelions and then she flew off, sort of!

And, because I’m their teacher and can connect anything we do with a book we’ve read, Shantell became Velma Gratch from the book Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison.  Henrietta didn't want to leave her finger!  

Thanks Nancy and Jeffrey!  What a wonderful experience.