The Joy of Caterpillars

Hi everyone!
It has been a great week for taking some pictures in the garden. It's been hot and dry, which has brought the butterflies into the garden in droves. Granted, my lilies no longer look fabulous, but I'll take it, all things considered.

First things first, there are caterpillars all over the Spicebushes. I'm so excited. I tried for three years to get Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars in the garden in Florida, and I only ever saw one. My current count is over twenty-five in this garden, and I'm thrilled. They are doing really well.

So here are some pictures of baby butterflies, from birth to near metamorphosis. The big guy was one of the first to hatch on the bush so I haven't had any chrysalises around yet.

Step 1: Find an egg
Sometimes that is easier said than done, because butterfly eggs are tiny. This single little speck is about the size of the ball in a ball point pen. The eggs start out yellow when they are first laid, then they harden to this shiny black. Eventually the baby caterpillar hatches out, and at first they are so tiny, they are very difficult to see.


Step 2: Look for caterpillar houses.

Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars spin silk on the surface of a leaf and pull the strands together to make the leaf fold into a tiny leaf taco. They hide inside to protect themselves from predators. I unfolded this leaf house to get a picture of a newborn caterpillar. This one is really little, as you can see by the monstrous size of my thumbnail.


Step 3: Watch out for moving poop.

As the caterpillars get a little larger, notice they bear a striking resemblance to bird droppings. This is actually a brilliant survival strategy for the caterpillars. Honestly, what bird wants to eat that? When I found this guy, he was in the process of weaving a new larger house. Notice the fold just above him, that was the former house of one of his brothers or sisters. And the tiny fold at the tip of the leaf was the house of one of the little babies.

Step 4: Beware of chemical warfare.

When agitated, Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars do what most Swallowtail caterpillars do. They turn on the stink. See the orange things sprouting out of his head? He shoots those out to ward off attack. In it is a concentrated essence of the spicebush leaves he's been eating. I couldn't smell this one very well, mostly because I have a cold, but when the Black Swallowtail caterpillars do this, especially the ones that have been raised on fennel, watch out.

Step 5: Keep an eye out.

As the caterpillar grows, he also grows more intimidating. His eyespots that he's had from birth become huge, and he has the ability to inflate his front half to look even scarier for a soft squishy green thing. Even fully grown, the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar still likes to hide, and really that's his best bet.

With all the birds and wasps in the garden, my little Spicebush caterpillars are thriving. I'm glad to have them. Now I'm probably going to get a lot of flack about all the caterpillar pictures. (You mean you put up pictures of things that look like poop and stink?) But I can't help admire these guys. I have over twenty five in the garden right now. That means soon, I'll have a whole lot of these...


That makes it all worth it.

Happy reading!

Jess