Sunday, July 11, 2010

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

 

Black Swallowtail caterpillars are very plentiful this year in my garden. I found one in early May that was feeding on the water celery near our goldfish pond.  I was shocked to see one feeding so early, typically here in NW Missouri I don't see them until the end of July or sometime in August. This past week I found 5 more feeding on the dill. Friday night I brought one in to try and rear it in captivity. Last night she was already trying to pupate and this morning her cocoon was complete.


 This picture shows the alarm response these caterpillars exhibit when disturbed. These odd little orange protuberances pop up out of the head. I'm not sure how this would deter a potential predator, but apparently it works.


This is what she looked like pre-pupation.


This is the sight I woke up to this morning. This is the cocoon fully formed and hanging from the stem of a piece of dill. It should be about 2 weeks and the adult will emerge. I will post pictures. With any luck I will be able to witness the emergence.
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7 comments:

  1. Out on the prairieJuly 11, 2010 at 2:17 PM

    Janice in My Garden posted some she had on her porch that went all the way through. I haven't noticed them yet. May have to look at my dill.Thanks for the book titles, ordered them.

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  2. Shelly CoxJuly 11, 2010 at 2:24 PM

    Dill is almost where I always find them. Occasionally they will show up on my water celery.

    I think you will really like those books. The Kansas extension office has a good one to Kansas insects that is a good guide too.

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  3. biobabblerJuly 11, 2010 at 6:20 PM

    wow, nice work. That's great. I'm excited to see her develop. Can you actually tell she's female? (not to get too personal =) )

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  4. Shelly CoxJuly 11, 2010 at 6:23 PM

    Thanks Bio.....I can't wait til she emerges. No...I can't tell if it is a girl or a boy....perhaps it is just wishful thinking...time will tell. LOL

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  5. kehbeJuly 28, 2011 at 8:38 AM

    We live in NW Mo. (Kansas City) and we too found black swallowtail caterpillars in our garden, however, they were feeding on Parsley. We found 5 of them. We put one in a jar with some parsley plant and in two days, it had attached itself to the side and formed it's cocoon. Unfortunatly, we didn't get to see the actual emergence but about two weeks passed before we had a beautiful butterfly. After releasing it, it stayed in and around garden for several days.

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  6. Alicia BorisonikAugust 24, 2011 at 1:02 PM

    Thanks so much for your information. I found many caterpillars like that on my parsley and I did macro photographies of them and yesterday I found one cocoon in my back and you confirmed with your pictures that is of them. I am so excited about this.Do you know how long will be in a cocoon stage?
    Alicia
    borisoni@magma.ca

    ReplyDelete
  7. Shelly CoxAugust 24, 2011 at 4:06 PM

    You're welcome Alicia. I think it takes them about two weeks to emerge.

    ReplyDelete

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