The butterflies immerged on day 14! The caterpillars were shipped on 8/11/2016 and arrived at 8/16/2016 taking 6 days to arrive by USPS. The caterpillars arrived full grown and started forming chrysalises on day 8. The butterflies hatched on 8/25/2016, 15 days after ordering. The advantage of this short life cycle is that it fits into the short attention span of young children and they can see the butterflies hatch in about 2 weeks. A clean sponge with sugar water was put into the cage as nectar substitute.