The black one on the right is a First Instar, there are 4 Third Instars and an adult on the left that will be leaving to pupate soon. Did you know that just before crawling off to pupate the adult caterpillar will purge itself of unfinished food in it's system...who knew? 7 Black Swallowtail caterpillars ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden )
Wow... I've only seen a couple of them here so far. They'd better hurry up and come eat, because one Fennel is already starting to flower.
There won't be much left of that Dill plant when they all crawl off to pupate, it's only about 10" tall...but they are who I planted it for. Nothing out front on the Fennel yet. But there has already been a Gulf Fritillary cat on the Passionflower vine when the green was only about 6 inches above ground level. Poor Momma was flying around for days or several Momma's hanging around a couple of days each, before the vine started putting out new growth.
I saw a giant swallow tail or orange dog as the citrus farmers around here call them flitting around my orange tree the other day so I went to check it out. I have 4 tiny eggs (that I can see). I am anxiously waiting for them to hatch!
I don't have any butterflies, eggs or caterpillars in the garden. :-| I'm hoping that some will come now that spring appears to have arrived. I'm also waiting patiently for a sighting of some bees to pollinate my fruit trees and bushes.
It's great that it is starting to happen. Here in the south have been very busy. I have released my first batch of BST. I have already identified most of my lifers, I found several 4th and 5th instar Monarchs which is awesome. Shaping up to be a good season.
