Garden Guests
Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince I've watched the caterpillars all through the summer. They ate the dill twice and finally killed it. Then they moved to the parsley. The caterpillars would disappear and I'd never find a chrysalis. Did the birds get them, I wondered. And today I got an answer. I'd been picking tomatoes and glanced over to the parsley. Something dark seemed to be hiding deep in the plant. I wondered if the robber fly from yesterday evening was hiding in the cool. And when I looked closer I found a Black S wallowtail newly emerged from its chrysalis. Note the still curled wings. The wings were not fully expanded and I stopped to watch part of the process. The wings started filling out more. [And note the caterpillar just to the left.] The butterfly continued the process, but also was walking all around the parsley. I wondered if I was dis