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I found this little guy on my parsley plant and quickly looked him up because I remembered reading about one caterpillar that only feeds on parsley, sometimes called the parsley caterpillar it is the black swallowtail ! I dug up the whole plant and made a terrerium (sp.) for it and we are waiting for him (her?) to form a chrysalis.





and since you all know I'm fascinated by poop

Beautiful caterpillar, Mel! Can't say much for his/her droppings, though...

Dianna

I'll wait for the butterfly lol. eeeeeew creepy crawlies lol.

good for you, sharing your crops.

Oh, that is so weird that a freaky thing like that turns into a butterfly!

Whoa, that is too cool, Mel! Be sure and post a picture of the beauty it turns into

I will. First I'll take pics when it forms a chrysalis. Then I've got to put it in my garage for the winter until the weather starts to warm up again , it won't "hatch" until April or May!

How exciting Melcon! That is a great picture of him/her/it!!!

Do me a favor....when you come back to report...please put the updates in this thread...want to keep it all together. If for sommmmmme reason it happens to make it to archive let either Bill or I know and we will pull it back up for you.!!! Thank you!!!!

Dumb question here......

The kids in the elementary classes,
always have searches for Monarch Butterfly
Catapillars, when the new kiddies start
kindergarden.... *like right now~September*
They bring them in, and wait for the crystalist
to form, and then hatch and and free them outside,
they do it, like in October/November I thought....

Does that kind of catapillar not come out
until spring or warm weather?????????

GREAT PICTURES BY THE WAY MEL!!!

I don't believe that is a dumb question at all !From what I've read, the Black Swallowtail in New England can have two cycles a summer and the third one will overwinter as a chrysalis because of the extreme weather. If the kindergarten (or 1st and 3rd graders, where the caterpillar is right now) keeps the chrysalis warm and hatches it in Oct or November the poor thing will die from freezing temps or starvation as not much is blooming anymore.........so as soon as this guy forms his chrysalis at the kids school, I'll be bringing it back here to overwinter in my garage and I'll have to be really patient.

I talked to my sister last night and she took a pic of a beautiful blue butterfly in my yard in Aug, We believe it is the mother !

Catlover, I will post in here any follow-up, but I will probably have to ask you guys to find it , I can never find anything.

I was thinking they the Monarch's migrated...
don't they all go down towards Mexico???

I will have to look up info on that....

They've *those classes in school* have done that
like forever..
I'd hate to find out, that they've been killing
them every year...

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and since you all know I'm fascinated by poop

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Hummm.... interesting

I don't care for worms myself, or poop

is there a web site that post worm pic's or have you studied worm? I have tons of woolyworms in my yard right now but have no idea what they will turn into. I hate stepping on one....that's nastier than the poop :p

It looks like it's forming the chrysalis, I just came from the school and did get a pic but not time to do it now, I went to the school because my 9y/o called and she hurt her foot in gym, so now we're off to the doctors for some x-rays and a lot of sittin around, be back later, gotta go get my book.........................I do know that an old wives tale is "lots of wooly caterpillars, hard winter" . Last year we had way more than this year so I'm hoping for a milder winter...

Well, the foot is fine, just a sprain. I love how the school secretary can make you feel like crap until you take your kid to the dr. even though you know there's nothing wrong .......


Anyway, here's the caterpillar on Thursday and he had stopped eating and just hung out like this all day

and the kids came home on Friday and said it's a chrysalis now My son says he looks like a brown leaf.

Mel... that is too cool. I am wondering if I should keep any catterpillars I find. There have been a couple around and it would be fun to overwinter them if need be.

Yes you should definitely! I would make sure you know what you've got so you know what to expect. The internet is a good resource, and I've got two butterfly/moth books that I'm always running to look up things. I got them at this place in MA, called the butterfly place, you go into this gigantic solarium and they've got hundreds of butterflies and plants in it and you can walk around with the butterflies flying all over you. It's so cool!

I went out to look in the garden and did not see a thing. I know we get Monarch's here so I assume we get their catterpillars. Who knows. If I do find one in my digging this week, I will save it and look it all up.

The old wives tale around here is if the wolly cataerpillars are all black then harsh winter if they are brown then mild, if they are black and then brown striped it indicates a large storm or blizzard type conditions in the middle of a mild winter.

Well darn, I just saw one of those the other day and it was all brown and a pale brown at that.

I saw one of each..
What does that mean??? :rolleyes:

I vote for a ton of SNOW!!!!!

Booooooooo~Hisssssssssssss!!! :p :p

Sorry Weezie, I am a snow baby.

Same here Triss, I love it hte more the merrier!

Weezie I have always wondered that myself. I guess you just take an average of what you see the most of.