Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Parsley, dill, and swallowtails

We've had a bunch of black swallowtail caterpillars thanks to our parsley and dill plantings. Mr. O really enjoyed watching get bigger each day. I think most of them have either gone to the chrysalis stage of their life cycle (though I haven't found any chrysalises) or they've been chomped by birds.

We used to have a rue plant that attracted these caterpillars, but unfortunately it was too attractive and the caterpillars ate the thing to the ground and it never returned.

I find it unusual that most of the butterflies I see flitting about the place are tiger swallowtails but I never seem to see their caterpillars.
Here's a young black swallowtail caterpillar about to chomp on some dill:


And here's a passel of more mature caterpillars going to town on the parsley. Interesting how drastically they change color as they mature

So what does an adult black swallowtail caterpillar look like? We haven't been able to get any shots of them at the farm, so here's a link.

2 comments:

Milkweed said...

Hi...we just stumbled across your blog - it's wonderful! We're doing some similar things on our 5 acres in the outskirts of Asheville - our blog's at milkingweeds.blogspot. Thanks for all of the great stories and info, and I hope you don't mind I added you to our blogroll!

Brian and Dianne said...

Hey there - glad you found us and as a result that we found you. I've just started reading your blog - wow you guys are doing tons of cool stuff.

I've driven over the Swannanoa river many times on my way to and from a friend's cabin in Waynesville. It's a beautiful area.

Looking forward to learning more from your blog.