Black Swallowtail Butterfly Larva on Dill Weed
Best viewed large!
My wife was fixing a fresh Spinach and Salmon and Farfalle pasta salad today and needed a quarter cup of fresh chopped dill. I went out to the garden and was suprised to find three of these colorful caterpillars on the Dill Weed plant. The Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) prefers to lay its eggs on members of the carrot family including carrots, dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, and parsley. So the mother butterfly had found the perfect spot for her eggs. These Black Swallowtail Butterfly larvae are almost fully developed where they should soon be spinning their cocoons. We will be following their progress and hope to see the cocoons and the butterfly emerge. These caterpillars have an unusual gland called the osmetrium from which they emit a noxious odor when they sense danger. In addition, they also inflate orange horns when in danger. I touched one to see the horns which the larva obliged me by inflating to their full length. So I tried to hold the camera with one hand, touch the larva again with the other hand to get the horns inflated, and then move my hand before the horns deflated. Didn't work. The horns inflate for only an instant.
I'm also adding a link to the Wikipedia page for you to see the Black Swallowtail if you're not familar with that butterfly.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Swallowtail_Papilio_poly...
Black Swallowtail Butterfly Larva on Dill Weed
Best viewed large!
My wife was fixing a fresh Spinach and Salmon and Farfalle pasta salad today and needed a quarter cup of fresh chopped dill. I went out to the garden and was suprised to find three of these colorful caterpillars on the Dill Weed plant. The Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) prefers to lay its eggs on members of the carrot family including carrots, dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, and parsley. So the mother butterfly had found the perfect spot for her eggs. These Black Swallowtail Butterfly larvae are almost fully developed where they should soon be spinning their cocoons. We will be following their progress and hope to see the cocoons and the butterfly emerge. These caterpillars have an unusual gland called the osmetrium from which they emit a noxious odor when they sense danger. In addition, they also inflate orange horns when in danger. I touched one to see the horns which the larva obliged me by inflating to their full length. So I tried to hold the camera with one hand, touch the larva again with the other hand to get the horns inflated, and then move my hand before the horns deflated. Didn't work. The horns inflate for only an instant.
I'm also adding a link to the Wikipedia page for you to see the Black Swallowtail if you're not familar with that butterfly.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Swallowtail_Papilio_poly...