Butterfly in a Jar

My 5 year old daughter was reading a book entitled The Pet in the Jar (a little golden book series). We have the whole collection of that series kept since my husband was a child. There were still in very, very good condition, thanks to my mother-in-law.

The story tells of a little boy who found a caterpillar and thought it would be a great idea to keep it as a pet. So he put the caterpillar in a glass jar and covered it with a plastic. Then he was clever enough to make some holes on the plastic. Everyday he would give some fresh leaves and some twigs for the caterpillar.

With that in mind, I thought I should also let my children experience that in real life instead of just reading the book. In my backyard, I planted a lime tree and very often butterfly will lays eggs on the leaves. That really annoyed me because the lime leaves will disappear very quickly when the caterpillar starts to hunt for food.

Guess what! I found 4 caterpillars, still quite young, in brown colour. So I carefully put them in a glass jar, put some fresh leaves (yes from my lime tree), and covered it with a plastic sheet. Poke some holes and secured the plastic with a rubber band.

Everyday my daughters will admire them and count how many. In the jar often times has fresh leaves in it and droppings cleared. That’s mummy’s job! Day after day they grew bigger and longer and consumed a lot of leaves too. Pity my lime tree! I’ve tried with other leaves but the caterpillar only eats lime leaves. After around 10 days, the caterpillar finally turned into pupa, which will transform into butterfly.

After doing a research on the type of butterfly in my little jar and found that the butterfly is commonly known as Lime Butterfly (no wonder eats lime leaves) or Papilio demoleus malayanus.

Stages of the butterfly

Eggs – smooth, round, yellowish in colour, measuring 1mm in diameter

Caterpillar –

• 1st instar - brown yellowish colour, white hairs


• 2nd instar – dirty greenish brown colour, similar looks as the 1st instar



• 3rd instar – green colour, similar pattern as 2nd instar, white patches appeared near its head and last abdominal segments


• 4th instar – light green colour, more white patches appear throughout the body


• 5th instar – green colour with a few dark brown markings

Pupa - light green colour with two projections to the front on its head and also one on its thorax. The abdominal segments are a bright lime green. A silken girdle helps pupa stay in an upward position.

After another 10 days, the pupa shell turns transparent. The pupa would wait for the wings to dry and slowly open up its wings and becomes a butterfly.