This was an inspired choice of Easter gift from my mother to my four year old son. I must admit I was horrified when it arrived, but we diligently set it up and used the included coupon to apply for the cup of caterpillars. When they arrived they were tiny and barely moving - I thought they were dead. They slowly started moving more and more. Then one day we thought one of them had been eaten by the others! He was all in chunks!! Turned out that was the first time they shed their skins. They kept doing it, until they were enormous. I shuddered whenever i saw them, they were so disgusting. But my son was busy reading the national geoepgraohic live cycle book my mother had sent him (I reccomend getting this) collecting them leaves, and tending to his caterpillars. Eventually they grew very big and started building their chrysalis's. Still disgusting!! We then rearranged the cup lid so they hung down from it. Then yesterday we watched as five beautiful butterflies emerged. My son was delighted! It was truly incredible, their crumpled wings opened up and slowly turned from brown to beautiful colors. We fed them pineapple, watermelon and orange and they all feasted. This morning we collected fresh flowers for their breakfast, then went outside and set them free. They emerged one by one and did huge shaky loops of the garden as they tried out their wings for the first time. They soared around us in bigger and bigger loops - it was incredible.