A post or so ago I mentioned the caterpillars that had invaded my parsley for the second year in a row. My friend Kit let me know that I had swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on my hands and that is what sparked the great caterpillar exploration of 2012. I would check out the parsley plant every morning while I sipped my coffee. One morning I noticed another smaller type of caterpillar on the plant and I wondered what sort of butterfly it would make. Naturally I googled it. That is when the whole wonderful world of butterfly metamorphosis exposed itself to me. I was stunned to learn that the little spiny black and gray caterpillars who looked nothing like the big beautiful fleshy green mutli- colored ones were actually the same species! As it turns out the last metamorphosis in a butterfly's life is just the most spectacular in a series of metamorphoses. Each little caterpillar molts five times into a new phase called an instar. At the end of the fifth instar the caterpillar molts its skin for the last time revealing the chrysalis within that will harden to form a shell that will protect the butterfly while it undergoes its final changes. All of my caterpillars went off to parts unknown to finish their transformations save one. This little bugger just took a short walk from the parsley plant to the day lily next door. I spotted him there and watched him for the next several days waiting to see him emerge as a beautiful butterfly. It happened yesterday morning. When I came out with my coffee there was my little caterpillar, all grown up, freshly hatched and still drying his wings. I was there when he took flight and I watched him catch an air current and sail away.
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