We had caterpillars and watched them form their chrysalis, hatch and fly away.
But this guy/girl is going to stay with us. He/she has very malformed wings and a missing leg. Luckily my butterfly bushes are blooming and we have fresh fruit to share.
My son thinks they needed a brave strong name, meet Dragonslayer 👑
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@PepsiColaP there's no way to tell 😔 it is eating though and climbing around. I think it got a little smushed up in the webbing they make while they form their chrysalis. Like it didn't have enough room when it hatched to spread out right away. I feel for the little sweetie, but I couldn't just let him out, he'd get eaten right away.
@ScreamingFox i think what you and your son are doing are really amazing! Also I googled whether butterflies feel pail shortly after this and at least for the wings it appears they have no pain receptors (:
@PepsiColaP thank you for looking that up. I remember learning a bit about it in college biology, long time ago lol but its not like most people care if bugs are in pain 😔
We gotta do what we can because we can. I think insects are cool little aliens.
@ScreamingFox what did you major in? I find it cool how so many bugs are build for tough conditioning by missing pain receptors etc despite being so smol and fragile in many ways haha. I love insects you are right they are definitely very cool and it's awesome you are involving your son with entomology (:
@PepsiColaP My major was Agriculture and I took it upon myself to focus on plant and animal sciences. I even wrote my final papers in biology II on cognition in nature, which nobody liked but couldn't argue with lol
The intricacies are fascinating, hard to explain, sometimes nonsensical, but that's the beauty. Science could explain anything to me but not the "why" of it all, so to me, it's always been worth a deeper look.
I teach my son to respect and have compassion for the things he can't yet understand about nature. Great and smol lol We're all here, sharing a planet. There's no reason to feel superior and every reason to strive for harmony.
He's still afraid of bugs 😅 but he doesn't hate them or squish them. And I bet less people would if they understood 🖤
@ScreamingFox that's so cool and now that you say that I think I now remember seeing you mention studying agriculture before. That's so interesting and I can see how it's very fitting to your personality and interests. I don't remember if you talked about that before but why didn't you pursue it further as a career ? agriculture mist be amongst the most significant sciences ,with medicine ,chemistry etc. You raise your son to be an empath , i think it's normal to be fearful of them btw lol I'm still creeped out too , but it's good that he understands his personal feelings shouldn't interfere with their life. He is a smart little dude
@PepsiColaP Thank you. He's an amazing young man, much more gifted in many ways. I'm excited for his future 🖤
I didn't continue to pursue agriculture because of my area being massively developed. There aren't many farms left and I didn't like the attitude tbh. Most here have zero consideration for animal welfare or environmental impact. I worked on a dairy farm and it was awful how the cattle were treated. Such gentle creatures...
My major translated to environmental jobs, but again, with over development, there's less nature, less need for jobs in that field. I believe moving will open many doors for me because it is one of my passions.
For now, we'll just have to rescue strange critters and grow our own food/herbs 😂
