The Many Steps to Becoming a Butterfly
(click on photos to enlarge)
On April 12, I noticed a female Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) spending a lot of time visiting the small citrus trees that grow outside our kitchen window. While citrus do fairly well here (if protected from frost), I’d have never planted one due to its high water needs–they’re not suited to xeriscape. Since we’re renting this house and are required to keep the garden growing, I’ve been watering these two small trees. The payoff has been being able to watch Giant Swallowtails grow from eggs to adults as citrus is one of their most desirable caterpillar host plants. As I watched, the butterfly deposited five eggs on the tender new growth.
A freshly laid egg………..
By this morning, the movement of the caterpillar within the egg could be observed through a dissecting scope. When the squirmy little caterpillar finally decides it has had enough being confined within the egg, it begins to eat its way out.
It didn’t take too long before the caterpillar was out of the egg. Its first meal is the protein-rich egg shell. From this point on, the caterpillars are nothing more than eating machines. Wait until you see how big they will get!
April 20th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Beautiful photos, Arlene, not just in this post but throughout this entire blog. I’ll be back!
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Wow, stunning photos and love these steps of becoming a butterfly! Found you via stumbleupon!
May 4th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Mike and mon@arch,
Thanks for the comments. I’ll be putting more butterfly life-stages on as time allows. I find their life-stages so fascinating!
June 26th, 2011 at 3:21 am
hi. these are beautiful pictures. I admire your patience in taking the shots. wish I had the same level of patience, lol.
anyway, I would like permission to copy these shots for my collection, and possibly future use for my blog (or website if I go back to website maintaining).
my preferred email address is longshot@gmail.com.
thanks.
Tim