I’ve been hoping to snap some photos to follow up on my butterfly garden post, but the butterflies are so darn skittish that they flutter away as soon as they see me coming. The other morning when I walked out to the mailbox I noticed that my parsley plant had been completely demolished overnight—no leaves left at all, just stalks sticking up. I immediately blamed the neighborhood rabbits, but then I looked closer and saw this little fellow. I planted parsley specifically to accommodate butterfly babies, and here they are!
Upon closer inspection there were several caterpillars scattered around my garden! I’m going to keep an eye on them to see if they build cocoons. I looked it up, and these seem to be swallowtail caterpillars. I might need to plant some more parsley to fill their bellies.
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We have expanded our parsley planting each year and love to see those hungry caterpillars. This year they are devoring a dill plant also. Great pictures and I hope the butterflies will pose for you!
I usually find them on my dill as well. Beautiful, aren’t they?
I’m feeling super inspired by the colours of them. Great snaps!
So beautiful!
I never, ever see caterpillars where I live now…I had forgotten how lovely and bright they can be! How cool!
Do you use a macro lens for these shots?
I took these shots with my 35mm lens. I’d love to have a good macro lens though!
Fun! I found a caterpillar once when I was younger and tried to keep it as a pet in a cardboard box outside. It sneakily escaped.
Oh my god, do they ever EAT!!! I had two last year and I had to buy replacement parsley to keep up with them. They both became so chubby and turned into lovely butterflies in the end.
Bad news guys… I think a very hungry bird ate my very hungry caterpillars. They are no where to be found. So sad!
Nooooo….there’s no hungry bird in the story version I have :-)
I adore caterpillars – aren’t they just so fascinatingly alien?!
Wonderful! We found some of these critters a few years ago, I rescued them from hungry birds, fed them extra parsley and was rewarded with beauty in the house! http://fionaeason.com/2009/09/28/eastern-black-swallowtail-butterflies/
Oh my gosh! Love your photos! I’m going to have to bring my caterpillars inside next year so they don’t get eaten.
Wow those caterpillars are very colourful, you’ve managed to take some great photos!
Hi Amanda! I just stumbled upon your blog and love it. These caterpillars remind me of summers when I was little. We used to pick these caterpillars off the parsley in my grandma’s garden, put them in our “bug bin” and feed them parsley until they spun cocoons. Then we’d watch them hatch into beautiful black swallowtail butterflies! It was a pretty neat experience as a kid. We plant parsley in our garden every year now – haven’t seen them, but hopefully they will show up soon! Love your photos and your blog. Keep up the amazing work!