Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Caterpillars

Solana's learning about caterpillars in school and they have two butterfly pavilions in their classroom right now. She often comes home with updates and interesting facts about their caterpillars/chrysalises/butterflies. They've released a couple of Monarchs and that's exciting.

A few weeks ago I started finding our own caterpillars in the vegetable garden. A couple were hanging out on the carrots and a few more on the parsley. We incorrectly identified them as monarchs to start but then realized they're black swallowtails. I initially plucked them off the parsley to save the parsley but then ended up feeding a ton of it to them anyway!






We have 7 total and they're all snug in their chrysalises now. I recently read online that, if they make their chrysalis in later summer, black swallowtails often overwinter in their chrysalis and emerge in the Spring. Looks like we may have some house guest staying all winter long!


2 comments:

carol anne said...

They are cool, but a little creepy too! They remind me of the worms that people eat on those survival; shows :X

Megan B ♥ said...

Wow, how cool is that??? And is it weird to think that they are beautiful? Those colors together.... I'd like to do a bathroom in that motif :)