Busy, Buzzing, Bees! Sort Of.

Mine! All mine!
(Click pictures to enlarge)

"The solitary Bee
Whose buzzing was the only sound of life,
Flew there on restless wing,
Seeking in vain one blossom where to fix."
~ Robert Southey, Thalaba (bk. VI, st. 13)

One "busy" bee.

"How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower.
- Isaac Watts, Against Idleness

Drunk with nectar....languishing in the summer sun.

"Give and Take...
For to the bee a flower is a fountain if life
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love
And to both, bee and flower,
the giving and the receiving is a need and an ecstasy."
~ Kahlil Gibran

"Busy as a bee" and how busy the bees have been this spring. We have all sizes from tiny little yellow fellows, all the way up to these giant bumble bees. They have latched on to the hyssops of blue and apricot (agastache), the lavender, daylilies, milkweed, black-eyed susan, and any other plant with anything that resembles a flower. Of course, the lavender and the bee balm (monarda) are the favorite. In fact, each bloom is often covered with two or three big bees at one time. I noticed that even at dusk when most insects are retreating for the night, these bees almost seemed to be in a bee-drunken stupor; settled down in between the blooms with wings folded, not moving even as the camera came to within inches of their heads. Yes, indeed... these two are drunk with delight. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't stay on the flowers all night.

We had many bees last summer as well, but it seems as if there are more this year. And yet, the black swallowtail and monarchs are still slow to lay eggs on the abundant milkweed and fennel. Could the bees be part of the reason?

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Saturday Photo Hunt ~ Busy (late)
Mellow Yellow Monday

And So It Begins Again....

Remnants of last season.... beginning again. Black swallowtail butterfly.

"I've watched you now a full half-hour,
Self-poised upon that yellow flower;
And, little Butterfly! indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless!---not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!"
~ William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

Last October, six black swallowtail caterpillars, the last of the season... wove their chrysalides in the small aquarium sitting in my sunroom. Five days past.. then ten... then a full month... and it became obvious that these six were not going to emerge until spring. Days and weeks and months passed; the sticks with five brown and one green chrysalides simply ..."were". Two attached to the mesh cover and the rest to small twigs. A couple of the twigs had to be taped to larger sticks to fit into the empty flower pot in the aquarium. Those black swallowtail that overwinter usually start emerging in mid to late April, but one adventuresome fellow suddenly emerged in early April... really too soon, especially this year. The day was cold and wet and I kept him inside as long as possible before placing him in the drying mesh lid we used last year. An hour or so later, he was gone... I fear for his survival as there were so few flowers blooming and it was really cold. So, for the other five... I covered the aquarium with a dark towel for a few weeks... the length of the day, the light is the trigger for their emergence not the temperature.

Three more butterflies have successfully emerged, inflated their wings, practiced their wing style and spent time resting in the welcome mesh outpost. They have long since gone... but I did notice the tiny eggs on the fennel and several small caterpillars in various stages already eating the now abundant fine foliage. Sadly, the fifth butterfly was deformed and couldn't inflate the wings..... it died quickly. So now there is one left. It still has several days to emerge and still be within the normal time.... we will see. Soon, we will be breaking out the incubators for both the black swallowtail and the monarchs.

And an update on the monarch caterpillars already on the milkweed.... as last year, the first crop of caterpillars mysteriously disappeared. Only one managed to grow fairly large and I was thinking of bringing it inside for the last couple of days before transformation... but this morning it was dead. I do hope the parasite that invaded them at the end of the season is not still around. As yet, I have not seen any adults.

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Nature's Notes

Lovely Little Ladybug, Coming Soon to a Garden Near You

Will ladybug season be early or late?

"The ladybug's a beetle.
It's shaped like a pea.
Its color is a bright red
With lots of spots to see.
Although the name is ladybug
Some ladybugs are men.
So why don't we say "gentleman bug"
Every now and then?"
~ Author Unknown

I love ladybugs... so round and bright and spotted.. and wonderful to keep the aphids off the roses. In these parts, the garden centers get their crop of ladybugs around the first of May.. though the aphids show up earlier. They are voraciously hungry and very efficient, as within a day or two they manage to eat all the aphids. Unfortunately, they usually move on, even though we have put out special ladybug food to entice them to stay. I love to see them walking along the rose stems and seeing the tiny aphids scattering as fast as they can. Now, if only someone would find a bug who loved to eat June bugs.... they are more destructive to the roses than the aphids.

One warning about June bugs.... DO NOT use those hanging sac traps.... all they do is attract the June bugs to the trap... AND YOUR YARD! I hung one out last year and in the time it took to go in the house, look them up on the computer and read about the pitfalls... fifteen June bugs had committed suicide by entrapment. But there were even more on the roses. Apparently, the only way to effectively use these (and then only if you really dislike your neighbors) is to give them to neighbors several houses away.... let the beetles be attracted to their yards. This really is not a nice neighborly thing to do. I did read that you could collect them in a jar of dishwashing liquid and water and then blend them up into an emulsion and spray the mixture on the plants. The writers said this would repel the June beetles; I guess no one like to nibble with the scent of one's relatives around.

My shade garden is returning... columbine about to bloom, ferns curling up spirals from the mulch, the astilbe leafing out and even the leaves returning to the hydrangea.... now... hmm... is it purple with acid or basic fertilizer. I did it wrong last year and the flowers were pink... pretty but I wanted purple with green centers. And the irises I planted last year... those I took from our old house... those that I thought would surely perish since I left them in plastic wash pans with no dirt for three years... those that instead multiplied and turned 50 plants into 175....well, it looks like at least some of them will bloom this year. And with my brother coming home in late April... he will get to see them in their glory!

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Ruby Tuesday

A Dragonfly Dillydallied

A dancing dragonfly dares to dillydally.
(Click picture to enlarge)

" Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.
~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Silent Noon

Carmi is asking for our favorite pictures of the year. I posted several pictures of the different butterflies we had visit and grow in our garden areas and I love them all, but I never got around to posting any of the dragonflies. Dragonflies are always abundant here, of all sizes and colorations. In the hot summer evenings, just before nightfall, they begin their dance high in the air. We sit on the patio and gaze into the reds and purples of the sky and watch... the numbers grow and soon there may be as many as ten to fifteen, flitting and turning and then diving down to within a foot or two of the ground, or our resting places... then they streak straight up to rejoin the airborne ballet. After a time, they finish and wing their way to wherever dragonflies keep safe in the night.

During the heat of the day, they poise on the flowers or seek shade on the mulch under a bush. If you are quiet and move slowly, you can get close enough to see the colorful green sheen on the eyes and the powdery blue of the body as if the insect had been dusted with corn starch. This one took advantage of our purple butterfly bush and used the backdrop of the terra cotta deck skirting to show off its delicate wings and pose for glamour shots before getting bored with the process and flitting away. It would have to be considered one of my favorites!

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Carmi's Theme ~ Favorite Pictures of the Year

Almost Wordless Wednesday : A Magical Monarch Moment

Monarch Magic

"Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

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ABC Wednesday "M"

Wordless Wednesday

Stripes In Candy and Crawlers Dandy

Red and white... candy stripes. (Click picture to enlarge)

“Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.” ~ Albert Einstein

Peppermint candy in red and white stripes is sweet and sugary as it slowly melts in your mouth; but other stripes in red and white are more "candy" for the eye than for the taste buds. And yet they are none the less bright and beautiful.

Clockwise from upper right: Black Swallowtail Caterpillar (Papilio polyxenes asterius Stoll); Forest Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria);
Monarch Caterpillar (Danaus plexippus ); and Tomato Hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata).

All of these creatures can "change their stripes". The black swallowtail caterpillar goes through several color changes during its growth, adding stripes and brighter color and in doing so, closely mimic the monarch caterpillar with yellow, black, green and white stripes. These two change into beautifully marked and colored butterflies. The tomato hornworm will strip and eat the leaves off of a tomato plant overnight.. it did to mine. It too can change into a large moth, the five spotted hawk-moth and while the colors are shades of brown, there is an almost marbling effect of the color on the wings that is quite handsome. Unfortunately, the most colorful of all the caterpillars here, the forest tent caterpillar... uses all of its pizzaz here. I love the stripes of red and yellow and turquoise blue and the intricate black pattern with stark white along the top. However, this caterpillar can be a severe pest for the hardwood forests and the moth is buff tan and bland and pales in comparison. While I prefer the end product of the swallowtail and monarch caterpillars, I cannot help but be entranced by the colors and undulating movement of the stripes as they slowly move across a twig like a swaying belly dancer.

The Saturday Photo Hunt theme for today is.... you guessed it.... stripes!

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Saturday Photo Hunt

This Is A Test

The same or different? What do you think?
(Click pictures to enlarge and study)

"Every man is a borrower and a mimic, life is theatrical and literature a quotation" ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today was a perfect day for butterflies... pleasantly warm with a small breeze and low humidity... at least low for here.. under 50%. At one point during the afternoon there were four different varieties of butterflies on my blue caryopteris... all at the same time. I spotted a new variety in our garden... common to the area but not seen here, or at least I don't think so.... well... maybe it is a new variety... hmm. This is where the test comes in. Are these the same butterflies? Male versus female perhaps? The adults find nectar on the same plants... a lot of different butterflies do too.

Which one is which?

So, are they the same... are they different and if so.. what makes them different? Look closely and decide... before clicking on the "read more" below... the answer is there.

Mellow Yellow Butterfly Summer

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, sipping a little lavender nectar.
(Click pictures to enlarge)

"Bees sip honey from flowers and hum their thanks when they leave. The gaudy butterfly is sure that the flowers owe thanks to him." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

Tiger swallowtail butterflies regularly visit the lantana and lavender for nectar around our house. They are larger than the black swallowtail and fly high into the trees of the preserve. Host plants for the caterpillars are primarily trees and shrubs such as the tulip tree, sweet bay, wild black cherry, ash, lilac, aspen, birch, or choke cherry and we don't have any in our yard, but at least one of these trees should be out in the preserve. After the experience with fennel and black swallowtails, I'm glad we don't have the host plants.

August is "butterfly month"

This has been a bumper year for butterflies here. Perhaps the heat, perhaps planting the flowers.. who knows exactly why, but there have been at least ten different varieties of butterflies in our yard... sometimes all at the same time. I love to sit on the deck and watch as two or three flit and dance together in mid-air or tease me by flying around my head. Unbelievable beauty in such a delicate package. Amazing!

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Lady In Waiting

A lady in waiting... an American Lady butterfly. (Vanessa virginiensis)
(Click pictures to enlarge)

"I've watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! - not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!"
~ William Wordsworth, "To a Butterfly"

Early this summer our flowers were almost overrun by these lovely ladies, quite friendly, fluttering close to anything with color, even seersucker shirts. These are related to but slightly different from "Painted Lady" butterflies, (Vanessa cardui). The Painted Lady has four rounded "eyespots" on the under hindwing while the American has only two and they are slightly larger. There is also a slight variation to the red and black pattern on the underside of the forewing, most obvious is the small rectangular red patch with a central white dot that is typical of the American Lady. We have both here in coastal Virginia, but this year the American Lady was more prominent.

Clockwise from top left: Coneflower "Hot Summer", Lantana "Chapel Hill Gold", Lantana "Miss Huff",
Butterfly bush (Buddleia), and Coneflower "Fragrant Angel".

The information site lists the favorite nectar plants including goldenrod, marigold and milkweed. Yes, they did love the milkweed flowers, but as you can see they also adored the coneflowers, lantana, butterfly bush and the coreopsis (first picture). In fact, they feasted on most of the flowers in the beds this year. I didn't see any caterpillars on the sunflowers this year and I really didn't have any of their other favorite caterpillar host plants. It is just as well, since I am still overrun with black swallowtail and monarchs.

Coneflower "Twilight" and feasting American Lady.

The American Lady must be in between broods right now as their numbers are down a bit. Never fear though, these are very prolific and their numbers make them, along with the Painted Lady, the most widely spread butterfly in North America.

By the way, with all our rain the last two days, the butterflies have had to find shelter. We had a break in the weather for a few hours and they exploded... Monarch, Tiger Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, Clouded Sulfur and Pearly Crescent were all gathering nectar at the same time. I had trouble deciding which one to photograph!

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Color Carnival
Friday's Ark

Magical Monarch Metamorphosis

Magical Monarch Metamorphosis.... the final reveal.
Click on arrow to play the slideshow

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

Monarchs Part One: When What To My Wondering Eyes Did Appear
Monarchs Part Two: Monarch Happy Dance

Twelve days of dangling... twelve days of warmth in the sun and nights safe inside... twelve days of rest.... and anxious watchfulness on our part. The first emergence was a surprise, unexpected really... there was the butterfly, hanging onto the side of the habitat, pumping up his wings. We had missed the subtle changes in the cocoon and the final reveal. Determined not to miss another, I watched closely the other five chrysalides.

The first change is a slight blotchy color change with spots of black showing in the sides of emerald green. When this involves at least a fourth of the cocoon, then chances are the butterfly will emerge within 24 hours. Monarchs are nothing, if not punctual. While only a few emerged each day, all six broke out of their small prisons between 7 AM and 8:30 AM. Swallowtails just give you a general range of time... just "morning"... anywhere from between 6AM and 1 PM.... very hard to judge and capture the photos. But with the limited time line, the Monarchs show great consideration for the photographer.

It all happens so fast. The chrysalis is tissue paper thin and dark, allowing you to see the colors and black veins of the wings inside. There was little movement or wiggling, just a sudden small crack in the shell and the appearance of long black antennae, a head, crinkled tiny wings and a large abdomen that simply flops and falls out of the cocoon. Then they are here... limp wings waiting to be fluffed and pumped up by an inner hydraulic pump system. This takes perhaps a half an hour and then they simply love to hang onto the cocoon or the side of the habitat and dry.... every once in a while testing the wings. Within another hour, the Monarch is ready to fly, but they will cling to fingers and even clothing for that last second before lifting up onto the breeze and fluttering up to the tall trees. In the safety of the trees they finish off their final drying time and then it is off to see the world.

We could have one more batch of Monarchs before they begin their migration, but since most caterpillars are disappearing before I can get them inside, I am not sure if there will be more than these six this year. If we find any more caterpillars, they will definitely be in the group that emerge as butterflies but live longer to migrate to Mexico for the winter. At least I feel we did our part to replenish the numbers that had been destroyed by freak freezing in the past couple of years. And I plan to plant several more milkweed plants for next summer as well.

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Monarch Happy Dance

Losing one form to gain another.... the Monarch "happy dance"
(Press the arrow to play slideshow)

"Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever obsessively observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly." ~ Andre Gide

Part One: When What To My Wondering Eyes Did Appear

Six Monarch caterpillars out of fifteen were saved. They ate and ate and ate the milkweed leaves offered and just when I thought they would devour all the milkweed I had planted, they stopped. As with the swallowtail, they wandered around the mesh enclosure and chose a place to rest. Five chose the same general area, which made for quite the show... one caterpillar touching another already attached at the hind end and all the squirming and bumping; one could only think of a couple of young siblings and the typical... "You touched me! Did not! Did too! Don't touch me! Mommmmm!"

Finally, all six were in their J-shaped hanging stance ... and one by one the fun began. The antennae were the first to change, taking on a jagged zig-zag appearance as the caterpillar seemed to stretch long and straight for one last time. Very suddenly, the skin along the head simply split and the wriggling back and forth began in earnest. Side to side, the "happy dance" continued as the skin slipped slowly up, crinkling to a small mass up at the attached hind end. With one last circular pump, it falls and an emerald green chrysalis remains. The show is not over for the chrysalis still moves and starts to shorten and smooth as the attachment becomes thicker and darker in color. The initial shedding of skin takes only a couple of minutes, but the maturing takes several hours. And then, there is motionless rest... an acorn shaped smooth emerald with tiny dots of gold... yes, metallic dots of gold adorn these jewels.

And once again.... we wait.

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The Caterpillar Chronicles: Part 3 ~ We Birthed A Butterfly!

An empty shroud.....

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." ~ Maya Angelou

Well, it took two weeks, a few days longer than advertised; probably this was due to the lower temperatures in the sunroom. I asked the lady at the botanical garden's butterfly room if this might be a problem. She said I could set the box outside for a bit during the day so I did, but kept it out of the hot sun. She also told us that only one or two eggs out of a thousand would make it through the caterpillar stages into the chrysalis and to a mature adult. Most fall victim to being eaten by spiders or birds at other stages.

Monday, July 5th was just another day. Stephen had arrived and we had much to do, so I set the box out and went about getting ready to go out. I was taking Daisy out for a potty stop before we left and saw this black swallowtail on the outside of the mesh enclosed box. At first I thought it was another butterfly that saw the fennel inside and was stopping to visit, but then I saw the empty chrysalis. How could this have happened so fast? And how did it crawl out through the folded mesh on top?

Drying time... resting from the ordeal.

The brilliantly colored butterfly was quietly sitting or hanging on the mesh, drying the wings. Daisy ignored it as she passed by and the butterfly didn't move. It was a perfect moment to capture the magical painted wings at rest as they usually flit and flutter so as to make it nearly impossible to focus in for a clear close-up shot.

Brilliant colors... may fade with time.

The splashes of yellow, orange and blue on the underwings and the perfectly placed yellow spots on the black body... so different, so unlike the caterpillar that preceded the transformation, yet both so beautiful in their own right. We watched for a while... waiting for that first stretch of the wing... and then...

Testing the wings.... female black swallowtail butterfly
(Papilio polyxenes asterius)

She opened her wings wide to the sun and kept them there to dry. Yes, a female... she has only a small dusting of yellow above the patches of blue, which are more prominent than those of the male. We left for our errands and when we returned, she was gone... but I think she visits us on occasion. I have seen a female black swallowtail flit up to the glass sunroom doors and hover... perhaps just saying "hello" and "thank you".

As for our butterfly nursery... we already had two more caterpillars munching and growing. They have since interred themselves, both doing so within ten minutes of each other, but not without some drama...(pictures to come later) I also found more eggs and tiny caterpillars and now there are five more working on the dill, fennel and parsley. I guess we are doing our part to increase the population around here. Now, I might have to get a couple of those more sturdy houses.. one for the caterpillars to grow and one for the chrysalides to mature. Perhaps even getting some monarch eggs to try. I have their favorite food... milkweed.. ready and waiting for them, but so far.. no Monarchs.

Previous related posts: What A Difference A Day Makes
The Caterpillar Chronicles: Part 2 ~ And He Has Just Settled Down For A Long Summer's Nap

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Friday's Ark

A Dotted, Spotted Bug Is Not Always What It Seems

Spotted Cucumber Beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata
(Click picture to enlarge)

A little beetle passed me by.
He didn't make much fuss,
He ran around my garden
Like a tiny yellow bus.
~ Slyvia Gerditz

I love ladybugs. They are so tiny and cute and so helpful in the garden. This year my new roses had aphids and I bought a container of ladybugs and released them in the garden. Then I watched and they chased the aphids and ate the aphids and within a couple of days, the aphids were either dead or had moved on to happier ground. Of course, without the primary food source, the ladybugs quickly followed. But, every once in a while I see them back and smile.

This fellow looked like a yellow-green ladybug. So I took his picture and smiled and said "hello". Then I "Googled" him and to my surprise, this insect is a real and dangerous pest! Also known as the 12 spotted cucumber beetle and the southern corn rootworm (in the larval stage), as an adult beetle he eats cotton, beans, cucumbers, soybeans and others. Even worse, in the larval stage, the worm eats through the roots of corn plants killing them. They are a widespread agricultural menace. Apparently, they were even banned in labs in Europe because it is so hard to get rid of them... and yet... they still managed to migrate on planes and such. OH! MY! I looked as his picture and saw that indeed, he was eating the daylily flower. If they have no flowers, they will make do with the leaves. Where are the birds to eat these pests? The cucumber beetle does not have many natural enemies. I did find a suggestion about a "cucumber beetle death repellent" that sounded strangely similar to the one for Japanese beetles. If you collect the beetles, drown them and blend them up with water into a solution (this sounds really gross) and then spray the solution on your plants they will not bother them. Hmm.. they aren't drawn to the smell of dead beetles? No surprise here, neither am I.

Since I don't relish bug mush in my blender, I quickly ran back outside and was going to collect this pest and squash him flat, even though the dotted cuteness made this difficult. Of course, he was gone and the daylily had this wedge eaten out of the flower... but now I know. And though cute and spotted... the spotted cucumber beetle is now on my list of bugs to squash and not feel bad about it. Who knew cute could be so deadly?

Almost didn't make it but Carmi's theme this week has been "spotty",no excuse me... "dotty". I am sure there are much better examples in his visitor's posts.

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The Caterpillar Chronicles: Part 2 ~ And He Has Just Settled Down For A Long Summer's Nap

Black swallowtail caterpillar, a fennel eating machine.
(Click pictures to enlarge)

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." ~ Maya Angelou

See Part One: What A Difference A Day Makes

For the purposes of this post the caterpillar will be considered a "he" although I really haven't mastered the fine art of determining the sex of caterpillars, nor will I likely ever do so. Also, after my first post on the subject received no comments, I wonder if there isn't an underlying aversion to these creatures in most of the readers here. I know that many of these caterpillars are not the most beautiful things, some are hairy and spiny; even the beautiful tiger swallowtail butterfly has a caterpillar that looks like a big green monster with big black eyes. But we must remember that they have a purpose and a dedication to that purpose that most of us could afford to emulate at times.

An eating and pooping machine

So, here he is all tucked safely in his new home. I might as well not have had the screen mesh around the box, he had no interest in anything but eating. Many of us could only hope to have children that eat their vegetables as well as this fellow does. He left nothing behind and worked his way through the delicate thread-like leaves from bottom to top and then from top to bottom. In addition to his favorite fennel, I put in parsley, but he never strayed from the fennel. The caterpillar grew exponentially, almost a half centimeter a day. I really don't know how many times he shed his outer skin... the book says that they shed, then consume it... so he must have done so at night when we weren't watching.

The beginning of the pupal phase... choosing a sleeping place.

Of course, consuming so much food means only one thing.... poop. Tiny little black circlets of odorless black poop. They almost look like little seed beads with the tiny round hole in the middle of each one. These caterpillars have two yellow knobs that will protrude from their heads if they are disturbed... I disturbed him, accidentally. They say these give off a bad odor, but I couldn't smell it if they did (an advantage of formalin fried olfactory receptors). I wasn't prepared for this event and didn't get a picture. I say all this to disclose that I really don't know if the poop smells or not... the book says it doesn't... but hey... I have to have my nose buried deep in a gardenia to smell what my mom can smell standing six feet away from the bush, so what do I know.

Anyway, last week he ate and pooped and grew.. and grew... and grew.. until he did make the required 4 to 4.5 cm length and almost a centimeter in diameter. On Saturday, the 19th, I noticed a large quarter sized round patch of a more liquid (to put it as delicate as possible) poop. He looked drawn and smaller and I quickly ran to the computer to see if he was dying... and in a sense, he was. When it is time to enter the pupal phase the caterpillar choses a place to form the chrysalis, quits eating and empties the contents of his digestive tract completely. I had sticks available, but even at this time he could not think of leaving his fennel behind.

First he attached himself with a sticky substance to the fennel stalk at the hind end.... I noticed the small space between his body and the fennel and watched until I could see the single attachment. I have since, propped up the fennel and hopefully it will remain strong enough for the duration.

The final skin shedding to reveal.......

Monday morning, I saw a split in the upper part of his skin and for the first time in two days he was moving... not the slow motion of eating, but a wriggling, writhing motion. So I got my camera and it was a good thing I acted as this big change took only five minutes from start to finish. As he wriggled, the skin split and wrinkled up and slid towards the attachment point. There it bunched in a wad and fell to the bottom of the box. This revealed......

The chrysalis...

.....the chrysalis. Apparently, if he chooses to attach to a brown twig or limb, then the chrysalis will be brown. If the attachment is a green stem, then the chrysalis is green. Isn't it alien looking? I think you can make out the outline of rudimentary wings and the long antennae folded down. As soon as the final shedding finished, he rested... completely still, no motion and to the eye, so far, no real change. In nine to twelve days we should have a beautiful black swallowtail butterfly trying to emerge.... until then... we wait.

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Friday's Ark

What A Difference A Day Makes

What is this eating on my fennel? June 11th.

"The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity" ~ George Carlin

The new flowerbeds are filling up with plants to attract birds and bees and butterflies. So far, I haven't found any of the small yellow eggs on the butterfly weed that say the Monarchs are here. But a wide variety of tiny blues, painted lady's, zebra swallowtails and yellow sulfurs have been visiting. Then I saw this tiny creature on my fennel. The books say that this should be a black swallowtail... but it doesn't look like the picture. So more searching on Google and life cycles of butterflies and finally a picture.... an unlabeled picture.... then, even more searching. This fellow, or gal... (how DO you tell the male from the female caterpillar???)... was about one centimeter long with the tiny tufts of hair that were almost non-existent; black with a white belt and small orange nubby dots. Finally, I found a site that showed me the changes butterfly larvae make even before they morph into the butterfly. Sure enough... this IS a black swallowtail caterpillar that has graced our new garden!!

Then, I went out the next morning to check on our resident and was I ever glad to have already taken a picture of this fellow... because......

What a difference a day makes! June 12th.
Black swallowtail caterpillar. Papilio polyxenes

The caterpillar had certainly changed his stripes... and color... and size. He grew, overnight, to two centimeters and now looked like the typical black swallowtail larvae. They love the fennel and parsley... but, I began to worry about the birds. The cardinals would surely have their eyes on this creature soon... after all, he is supposed to get to four centimeters in length before he builds his cocoon. So I took a big box, cut out the sides and covered it in a bit of screen mesh I had. I have a jar with water and holes punched in the lid in which I put cuttings of the fennel and parsley. I also stuck in a bare branch with small limbs for him to attach to. And I have moved him inside the sunroom. It is the 15th and he is almost three centimeters long. I expect it will be one more week before it is time for him to build his chrysalis and then another two weeks before he emerges. Isn't nature wonderful?

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