Cup of Caterpillars - 5 Live Painted Lady Caterpillars with Food - Refill for Butterfly Garden Kit - Chrys-A-Lid Holding Log Included - STEM Learning Activity

Last year, we bought the complete set with the habitat and my kids absolutely loved watching the caterpillars form their chrysalises and emerge as butterflies, so we ordered the caterpillars to do it again this year. We received a cup with five caterpillars, which all formed chrysalises within 5-7 days. The butterflies emerged about 5 days later. This is a largely hands off activity, as the cup includes all the food that the caterpillars require. All you really need to do is transfer the lid with the chrysalises to the habitat before the butterflies emerge and feed the butterflies if you do not release them immediately. However, as these are living creatures, it is not guaranteed that everything will go as expected. One chrysalis fell off of the lid. They will not form properly if they are not hanging, so I used a bit of glue to reattach it and it turned out fine. Another one was much smaller than the others and had a terrible time freeing itself from the chrysalis. It eventually got out but still had part of the chrysalis attached and could not spread its wings, so I used a pair of tweezers to free it, and it was able to fly away. A third one emerged with deformed wings and cannot fly, so more than two weeks later it is still hanging out in the habitat. We give it an orange slice and cotton ball soaked with sugar water every day. Overall, this is a fantastic project for kids of all ages. My 3 and 5 year old loved watching each stage of the life cycle and were fascinated to see the butterflies eat up close. I highly recommend.

Awesome experience for my granddaughter! The caterpillars were pretty big when they arrived and were in their chrysalis by day 3. 9 days later all 5 butterflies emerged gorgeous and healthy. We kept them 3 more days before releasing.

I always have great success with InsectLore caterpillars. I’ve done a unit in the butterfly life cycle for 8 years now and I’ve always had 5/5 caterpillars successfully grow into butterflies.

The item came on time but only one caterpillar survived when arrived. Luckily it was able to complete the life cycle.

Son loves it! He gets to watch them eat and learned they make webs, soon they’ll be butterflies! He’s telling everyone about it at daycare and the park.

My granddaughter enjoyed watching the tiny caterpillars grow rapidly. However at least one of the caterpillars has died. Hoping doe at least a couple butterflies!!

Always one of my classroom favorites! These all turned out great. Will order a set again.

I previously purchased the set up for growing the caterpillars to butterflies. I bought these the following year for a new class of students. We were able to watch four caterpillars turn into butterflies! This is such a fun experience for kids and get a basis of a lifecycle. These products are good quality, easy instructions, great value, and educational!

We received 1 dead Caterpillar and the other 4 came already in chrysalis form, 3 of the chrysalis never developed and just dried. Only one butterfly emerged and had a deformed wing. Very sad

Caterpillars arrived all alive and became butterflies in a few days and stayed with us for around 3 weeks and even laid some small tiny eggs before they parted. Very recommended learning cycle for your little ones.

Caterpillars arrived all crushed and dead, the 'handle with care' labels were all covered over with a second packaging - not sure why it would be packaged this way?