You may have noticed a recent preocupation with butterflies.

The larvae of the small white butterfly should be kept in concentrations of no greater than two per jar, with a florret of brocolli each. Any more than that, and they will roam restlessly and refuse to eat, because their programming tells them that they're going to starve if they don't spread out and find more food.

Happy caterpillars don't do anything except eat. Don't clean out the jar more than once a week, you will distress them. Add more brocolli when their present supplies look sparse.

When they reach a length of 4-5 centimetres, food will become repellant to them. They will stop eating and start roaming. If they're going to escape, they will do it now. Put a piece of rough brown card over the top of the jar. The caterpillar will settle on it, and remain motionless for about 48 hours. It is absorbing its psudolegs and making sure that it contains no waste. You will observe it spin a pad of silk under itself and a slim silk belt around its thorax. Do not disturb it, or it will move and have to start all over again.

Between 10pm and 2am, it will begin to metamorphose. The chrysalis will emerge from under the skin at the head end first. The creature will struggle and writhe as it sheds its skin. It will have an easier time if it has been allowed to settle in an inverted position, but regardless of what happens, do not touch it - it will not injure itself.

Spray the chrysalis twice a day with a plant-mister. The chrysalis will retain the ability to twitch its hindquarters as a tactic to startle potential predators, and being sprayed may induce this.

After approximately sixteen days, in the morning after the sun is up, the imago will emerge. If it is not upside-down, offer it a piece of card, then suspend it between two jars. Do not touch it. It will spend 2-3 hours preparing itself, and fly between 11am and midday.

None of this stuff is on Wikipedia, you know. I'd love to add it, but I don't have a PhD, just some caterpillars in jars.

What amazes me is that nobody really seems to like bugs on here.