Live Organisms

The information below will highlight how to care for the Painted Lady Butterfly larva provided by the Duval County Extension Office. If you purchased a different species of butterfly larva, you will need to do additional research on care.

The Vanessa cardui, or Painted Lady, is the most widely distributed butterfly on earth. Painted ladies can be found on five continents, and they've even been raised as research projects in space stations!

Your larva will be delivered in individual containers with all of the food they need to survive the larva stage and move into the pupa stage.

Steps for Care

1. Leave your specimens in their cups while they are caterpillars. Do not open the lids or attempt to remove the caterpillars.

2. Keep your containers upright (the lid and tissue paper should be at the top) and away from direct sunlight.

3. As the caterpillars grow, the containers will fill with frass, molted skin, and silk web. This is normal, and will not harm your caterpillars.

4. Your caterpillars may chew off portions of the tissue paper. They have not run out of food. They are just getting ready to move into the pupa stage.

5. After the caterpillars have formed a chrysalis, wait 2 days before you move them from their caterpillar container into the butterfly enclosure. This will give the chrysalis time to harden.

6. Take the entire tissue paper (with chrysalis attached) and hang it from the side of the butterfly enclosure with a safety pin.

7. If a chrysalis falls off of the tissue paper, you can use a piece of tape to re-secure it to a new tissue paper (see video below).

8. From the time a chrysalis forms in the original larva cup to the time an adult butterfly emerges in the butterfly enclosure usually takes 7-10 days.

9. When the butterfly emerges, you may notice them excreting a red liquid. This is not blood. It's meconium, and this is a normal part of butterfly development.

10. Feed the adults by mixing 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1/2 a cup of water. Leave the liquid in a shallow container with a mesh sponge or cotton ball to allow the butterflies to drink, and replace the water daily.

Learn more about your organism care by watching the Carolina Biological video below.