C
ongratulations on the purchase of your Painted Lady Butterfly Kit. Painted Lady caterpillars are great to watch transform into a butterfly. Your kit has three to four Painted Lady caterpillars inside a container. There is enough food inside the container to last until it will pupate.
Painted Lady Butterfly Kits
I f your kits were shipped.
Keep the caterpillars out of the direct sun.
Y our caterpillars will eat and eat and eat. They will grow very fast but their 
skin does not grow with them, so they must stop eating and shed their skin. You will see them crawl to the side or top of the cup and sit there. This can take up to 24 hours. The skin they shed is called “cuticles“. When they shed their skin this is called “molting”. Do not disturb them when they are molting.
O nce the caterpillars are fully grown, they will crawl to the top of the container and form a “J”. This is called “J-ing.” They will shed their skin one last time to form a pupae or chrysalis that is attached to the tissue 
T wenty-four hours after the caterpillar has pupated. (do not be alarmed if your pupae becomes unattached.
I t will take about seven to ten days before the butterfly will emerge from the chrysalis. 
Y ou will know when they are ready to emerge when you see the pupae darken and you will be able to see the wings through the sides of the chrysalis.
W hen your butterfly emerges, its wings will be soft. It will hang on the side of the container until its wings are dry and hard. Your butterfly will not eat for the first day. The next day you can feed your butterfly sliced apples, bananas, or Gatorade on a paper towel.
P ainted Lady butterflies live about two to three weeks. You can enjoy your butterflies for several days inside in a cage before releasing them. Feed them daily. If you have a cage, you can mist the outside of the cage several times a day to keep them hydrated. Choose a warm sunny day to release your butterflies outside.
Enjoy your butterflies!