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 Painted Lady caterpillars inside a cup. There is enough food inside the cup to last until it will pupate. Holes have already been put into the lid for ventilation. Do not add any additional holes or leave the lid off or the food may dry out!
Painted Lady Butterfly Kits
I f your kits were shipped, carefully remove the piece of paper towel inside the cup that kept the caterpillars safe during shipping. Check the paper towel to make sure that there are 
no caterpillars on it before throwing it away. If there are, carefully knock them back into the cup. Once the towel is removed, replace the tissue on top of the cup and snap the lid back on.
Keep the cup 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 cup 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, you will want to remove the tissue paper with the pupae attached and pin it to the inside of your cage. (do not be alarmed if your pupae becomes unattached. You can place it on the bottom of the cage on the paper towel.)
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 cage 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. 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!