Metamorphosizing

I purchased this planter for the patio table at Pigeon River Pottery in Pigeon Forge. I brought it home and finally found some hen and chicks and a few sprigs of parsley to put in it. A few days later, I noticed an Eastern Swallowtail butterfly laying it's eggs right on those tiny parsley shoots.

I had to save them. Our front porch moth caterpillars did not survive so I felt I had to intervene this time. I plucked them from the parsley carnage and placed them in the habitat. Then I went to buy some parsley and dill. I wound up buying a great deal of parsley over the coming weeks!

And they did what caterpillars do. They ate, pooped, grew, molted and ate some more.

As more and more formed their chrysalides, I removed them and fixed them in the kitchen window sill.

Unfortunately, I lost track of the time and came home one day to find our first newly emerged butterfly drowned in a bit of dishwater.

To avoid any further guilt, I placed the skewers back into the planter on the patio table.
The butterflies have been able to fly away at will since. Here is a little video of one of our new friends spreading his wings!

Caterpillar Chronicles: The White Marked Tussock Moth

I never know what I'll find on my front porch. It's small but attractive. Everything seems drawn to it. We even found a horse there eating the flowers once. The goats don't count because a goat will crawl up your nostril to gnaw on your brain; a goat anywhere eating anything is not a stretch but a horse wedged onto a little slate porch is impressive.

Finding this little guy (girl, actually) a few weeks ago was even cooler than the horse! My photos don't do it justice. I'd never seen one and thought it was especially rare so I rushed to identify it. Turned out to be the caterpillar of the very common White Marked Tussock Moth. It crawled over the two little rockers all day before it came to rest in the crevice on the back of one of the chairs. We could sit by the living room window and see all that transpired. By noon the next day, it was completely cocooned. The fine black hairs that once occupied the caterpillar were now embedded in the webbing. Neato Mosquito!



Soon after vacation, I went out to check the cocoon and found a small, round and furry creature on the outside. It looked like some of it's body was missing and when I saw what looked like styrofoam, I thought the poor creature was diseased and deformed. I poked it with some pine straw and it moved! I went in to look up more info and as fate would have it, it was a female and they're wingless. What looked wrong was oh so right! (Don't take that to heart pregnant blogfriends. Moths are different than women.) That crunchy white stuff is the egg sack! I was so excited to learn we'd be able to see the process through! We were expecting!


And now, just look! BABIES! We have baby worms (caterpillars)! Click on the photo to experience it somewhat larger. (Do it now.) It's all too exciting or I'm just all too weird. One or the other, the kids have been able to watch the whole process which has been wonderful. The cycle of life and all that jazz, you know.


I'm going to transfer the little guys to our habitat and see if we can't once again witness the wonder of nature. The kids' teachers have requested caterpillars. This may be my golden (only) opportunity!

You can find lovely photos of the caterpillar and male moth here. Plenty of information I did not impart through Google for those of you who may be interested.

The Caterpillar Chronicles

Meanwhile, back on the farm, we've been communing like crazy with nature. I discovered some butterfly eggs on my parsley and dill so many weeks ago and that was all she wrote. You guys know I love bugs and I couldn't resist the opportunity to show the kids a little scientific magic.

Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly egg on my dill.


So here's my Dill plant. The larvae has hatched and are beginning to consume my favorite egg salad ingredient...


Here's my Parsley and you can see the little guys already doing damage there, too.



I decided to create a habitat and bring some in so that we could experience the wonders of nature right there on our kitchen table!


1st instar larva are either brown or black with a white saddle band around their middle. To protect against predators, their coloring mimics bird droppings. Their appearance changes so rapidly that it took me awhile to identify what kind of caterpillars I had.




Outside, the dill devastation continues as well as the incredible growth of these fat, juicy guys.


Inside, the air conditioning slowed their progress somewhat but due to their insatiable appetites by the end of the larval stage, I was feeding them parsley from the grocery store.


I did not take this photograph. My camera is too crappy for such fine detail but I wanted to point out that this species has an orange forked gland that can be everted when threatened. It emits a foul odor. I didn't notice it until they grew this large but then they began to smell like excrement doused in perfume.



Finally, I spy the first chrysalis outside. Do you see it? Amazing!




Due to my poor filming skills, I was unable to film any of my guys pupating. So here is someone else's video. It's very Dr. Who in my opinion.




I was also unable to capture any of the butterflies emerging from their chrysalis but here is a video to give you an idea.


And....Voila! The finished product!



Note: I just walked out onto the patio to admire the new growth of my parsley plants(the dill didn't survive the masticating) and discovered a brand new batch of butterfly eggs...