Ageha Kindergarten 🦋 Sleeping Beauty Princesses Waking from Hibernation ✨ Hibernators No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6!

It was last summer.
My mother, who felt a hollow void in her heart after all the Common Mormon butterflies had flown the nest, spotted a Spangle butterfly fluttering down onto the lemon tree.

When I returned from shopping, I found several tiny yellow eggs, looking like little fish roe, laid on the leaves.

Mother brought the lemon tree into the sunroom.

Tiny insects hatched from the eggs, ate the lemon leaves voraciously, and grew larger by molting several times.
Before long, the lemon leaves ran out, so she supplemented them with Japanese pepper leaves and kumquat leaves.
Even then, it wasn't enough, so she went out and bought a lemon tree.

The swallowtail larvae eat voraciously and poop voraciously.
When their droppings fall on their path, they pick them up with their mouths and toss them far away to clean up.
While eating leaves, if the caterpillars bump heads, they stick out their horns and get angry at each other. Ageha Kindergarten was bustling with these unique caterpillars.

Eventually, the lemon leaves ran out, and they started nibbling on the lemon fruit. So, Mother went to buy a mandarin orange tree.

She managed to gather enough citrus leaves.
The caterpillars grew up healthy and eventually turned into 13 chrysalises.

It was already October.

"I wonder if they'll hibernate like this?" Mother said.

Even though it was October, hot days were still continuing, so I replied, "Isn't it still okay?"
But Mother's intuition was right.

The chrysalises had entered a deep sleep to spend the winter just like that.

When the year turned, the cold winter ended, the cherry blossoms fell, and tadpoles were hatching in large numbers from frog eggs, a Common Mormon butterfly was flying gracefully in the sunroom.
It had secretly turned into a chrysalis and emerged in the sunroom.

Not long after that, the one in the chopstick sleeve—which I had protected after it fell down while it was a prepupa—emerged.

The swallowtail that emerged following the one from the chopstick sleeve was a bit large.
It was flapping its wings, eager to fly.

After doing some flight training, it apparently flew off into the sky energetically.

And then, Hibernator No. 4 emerged.

Hibernator No. 4 also rested in the sunroom for a while before flying straight into the bamboo grove.

I was looking forward to them emerging every day, but after that, none emerged at all.

Since the nights were still cold sometimes, I thought it might be a little further off.
Five days after the last emergence, I casually looked at the insect cage and found that two had emerged.

It's surprising, considering there was no sign of them emerging just a moment ago.
The time from coming out of the chrysalis to spreading their wings is over in a flash.
If they don't come out and spread their wings quickly, the wings will harden.
That's why butterflies, as soon as they emerge from the chrysalis, first stretch their legs in all directions to find a foothold and a place where they can hang upside down from the ceiling. I believe they hang upside down so that their wings can stretch out under their own weight.

Before long, they started fluttering inside the cage, so when I opened the lid, they flew over to the screen door and landed.

After their first flight training, they stay still for a while.
I wonder if it takes time for blood to circulate through their wings. They seem to be sitting still, gathering their strength.

Since they get to set off on their journey together, I want to release the other one at the same time.
When my mother opened the lid and brought her finger close, it climbed on. It's a beautifully shaped Spicebush Swallowtail.
This shape is rare.

Most of the overwintering chrysalises were brown, but there was one green chrysalis.
This beautifully shaped Spicebush Swallowtail emerged from that green chrysalis.

The other swallowtails had round, sloping-shoulder silhouettes. I wonder if the round, sloping-shouldered swallowtails are descendants of Origin-kun, who set off on his journey last year.

No. 6 flapped its wings a little before grabbing onto the screen door.
I watched over it for a while until its wings were full of strength again.

Before long, No. 5 started flapping and flew off from the open screen door. I was able to film the moment it took flight for the first time. The moment it went outside, it disappeared into the woods in the blink of an eye.

No. 6 didn't fly off even as it neared 3:00 PM. I got worried, thinking, 'Won't the sun set before it goes?'
When I opened the screen door near No. 6, it seemed startled, dropped down with a plop, then flapped its wings, took off, and flew straight toward the woods.

It seems some butterflies fall along the way if they don't have enough strength, but once No. 6 flew, it disappeared from sight in an instant.

I worry until they fly off. But I worry even after they've flown off, too.

'They're gone now.'
'It's lonely, isn't it?'
I shared that sense of accomplishment and the loneliness, like a hole opening up in my heart, with my mother.

That night, it rained heavily, as if the warm, sunny weather during the day had been a lie.
Oh, I worried all night long, wondering if the Spicebush Swallowtails that had flown away were okay.

Princess Auroras waking from a long slumber.
From the moment they leave their warm, safe home, they are surrounded by natural predators and must find their companions in the harsh wilderness.

Since I've been watching them since they were tiny eggs, I worry once they leave the nest, and I keep looking for them, wondering if they are alright.

The Common Yellow Swallowtails seem to be returning home, but the Spicebush Swallowtails haven't come yet.

May you cross the vast, distant sky and find your companions.

And please, come back to our lemon tree again.