Lovely visitor to my garden – a swallowtail butterfly.
Eastern Swallowtails host on members of the Apiaceae family which include dill, parsley, fennel, carrot, celery and Queen Anne’s Lace. This year they chose to lay their eggs on my dill plant. You can see a caterpillar feeding on the umbrella like seed heads (umbels). The seed head is only about 2-1/2-inches wide so that gives you an idea of how small this little guy is.
This caterpillar won’t win any “beauty contests” but later on in life will become stunning as a butterfly…
Wonderful photos – It’s interesting to see what a Eastern Swallowtail caterpillar looks like.
Thanks Sheryl – you should see them when they get big. This little guy was just hatched 🙂
Awesome!
One of my favorite things to watch during the summer – I always let them have one plant 🙂
So Beautiful! 🙂
I agree Ronit – to be so “ugly” in the beginning and later to turn into such a beautiful butterfly 🙂
So true! 🙂