Discovery day — June 3rd
While tending to our container garden, we found these unfamiliar critters crawling along our bronze fennel.
After a bit of research, I discovered these to be the larval caterpillar stage of the Black Swallowtail butterfly. More specifically, I think it’s the second or third instar of the larval stage, still with the “bird dropping” appearance.
Instar — a phase between two periods of molting in the development of an insect larva or other invertebrate animal.
Black Swallowtail instars:
About 2mm long, mostly black with a white band (“saddle”) in the middle
4-8mm long, reddish or orange spikes, still with the white saddle
Same as 2nd stage, but 8-13mm long
1.3-2.5cm long, with a series of colored bands: white, pale green, and black with large orange dots.
Same as 4th stage, but up to 4cm long
Day 2 — June 4th
Today we saw some stage progression; the top right has some definite bands beginning to show (early stage 4?), while the others are still mostly black with orange spots.
Day 3 — June 5th
Definite stripes now on the larger ones. We tried to count all the ones we were seeing on both our fennel and dill and got up to over 50, in various stages.
Day 4 — June 6th
Very well defined banding.
Day 5 — June 7th
A closer look at a stage 5 instar.
Day 6 — June 8th
This is the day we began to get concerned about running out of food for these caterpillars. We started pulling the carrot from our garden tower to see if they’d eat that (some did, some went exploring).
Day 7 — June 9th
The munching was getting voracious, and we started seeing fewer of them. Either they wandered off in search of food or a place to pupate, or the birds discovered them. (There’s no sound in this video, but just imagine “nom, nom, nom”.
Day 8 — June 10th
All the caterpillars are now gone. We thought they had all left or been predated until Julie found a very well hidden chrysalis among the sage.
You can see the very thin silk thread supporting the chrysalis. Although the camouflage is very well done, it’s not based on surroundings — it’s genetic, so that the majority of the pupae will blend in.
Day 15 — June 17th
After checking every day, we finally have a butterfly! I’m not sure how long since it had emerged, but it only stayed a few minutes. I’m lucky I didn’t miss it!
And a bonus
As I was photographing this butterfly, I found a second — the chrysalis had been hidden on the side of a planter.
(Bonus image of Poot1)
This was our first time seeing the entire cycle of butterflies, and it’s not something we had planned. We do, however, plan to deliberately cultivate host plants and suitable habitat once we get started in Oklahoma.
Lesson learned: plant LOTS.
House Update
Speaking of Oklahoma, here’s the latest:
Neither of us has been up there since the last update. Julie’s staying here with me while I recover from surgery, at least until I start physical therapy.
The site for the water well has been established and we’ve got our initial quote. Final price depends on well depth. We plan for him to drill next week while Julie’s dad is there.
Septic is quoted and ready to go, was waiting on well location.
There was a significant amount of rain up there lately, and we’ve had some wash out in the driveway (still just dirt, at this point). The county inspector had some recommendations on some changes to avoid erosion and gravel loss, which will require an additional culvert and some drainage ditches. In progress.
Electric — trees have been cleared. Will schedule when well and septic are done.
So when are we moving?
If I could give you a definite date right now, I would. The nice thing about having two houses at the moment is that there’s no firm deadline to get out. Of course, the bad thing is also that there’s no deadline.
We are making good progress packing up. We got rid of the vast majority of our extra stuff (“junk”). We’ll get the rest of what we’re not taking hauled off after we’re out. Assuming we can get uBoxes scheduled within a couple of weeks, I’m guessing early August?
The red-eared slider that moved into our cement pond and adopted us
Love the butterfly saga! The turtle was definitely a bonus! I wondered if he would snatch the butterfly before it could fly off. (Not very up on turtle diets)
So glad you got to see the “finished product” and share them with us! 💜