Today I found this beautiful and huge caterpillar sitting on my dill (Anethum graveolens) in the veggie garden.
It is (or will be) a swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon) which makes me really happy because they have become so rare that they are now a highly protected species in Germany. Hopefully it will develop into this
This cool looking Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar was neat to watch. It was running around on the side of the road, where we were walking in a local park.
Fred is a black swallowtail butterfly, who I found as a caterpillar at my work.
I found him on June 29th.
He spent the next few days munching on parsley, a favourite of swallowtails.
Then on July 5th, he started the process of preparing to become a chrysalis!
By the next day, he'd shed his old skin and become a chrysalis!
The next week and a bit were uneventful (to me, for Fred, it was very busy!)
Then on July 17th, his chrysalis became clear! A sure sign he was almost ready!
And lo and behold, the very same day, Fred re-emerged into the world as a beautiful male black swallowtail!!!
He was released the following day, July 18th, as the sun had been set for about a half hour by the time I had got home from work and I didn’t think it’d be a good idea to release him in the dark.