The Butterfly Chronicles - Part I

So here's the thing.

I got home late from work yesterday afternoon, and went straight out back with the dogs.

I noticed this HUGE black butterfly hovering our deck. Now, I love butterflies (I'd better, as I have a gorgeous one inked on my shoulder), and enjoy watching them, especially in the fall, when they seem to be everywhere. I saw where this butterfly was especially interested in my herb garden. I really didn't think much of it, being it was after five, hot as mess out, and I was tired.

After having changed clothes and gotten something to drink, I noticed that there were these wormy-things on my parsley plant...Upon closer inspection, I thought they were tomato worms, which were the bane of my mother's gardening existence back in California. My youngest son, who is wise beyond his almost-15 years told me that he didn't think they were. He thought they might be butterfly caterpillars. Again, I really didn't think much of it.

So this morning, I went out with the dogs and a cup of coffee and noticed that not only were there two green caterpillars, there were a bunch of black worms all over my parsley. So being the good Google-geek that I am, I ran an image search on caterpillars, and found one that looked like the ones on the plant out back. It seems that these green spotted mini-beasts are black swallowtail butterflies-to-be. I did some more research and decided that I was going to document this new generation of flutterbyes and blog about it.

Now, mind you, I'm in the house, and my portable hard drive is out in my studio, so the pictures I took haven't been reduced yet, but that's coming tomorrow. (It's ten-thirty, I had a photo shoot today, and have another tomorrow, so I'm fairly zonked.) I do want to say that after reading up on this, I decided to get a ten gallon aquarium and screened lid (apparently a terrarium when you don't put water and fish in it) at the local pet store for about $20.00 for the two. This evening I placed the pot with my host plant (another phrase I learned today) and some twigs about pencil sized in diameter into the terrarium just in case my big green friends are in their last instar (yes, a new word, and we'll explore that one later) and decide, over night, to flee my host plant and go elsewhere to shed that last skin before doing the cocoon-thing.

One can actually hatch butterflies in the house with the right stuff...host plant, twigs, screened lid, and consistent temp.

So that is where we are right now. Hopefully I will have the time tomorrow before the shoot to reduce and upload the pictures I took today with the macro lens.

Stay tuned! :)