It has been an August ritual for years, looking for the caterpillers, banded in yellow, green, and black. We would find them on the fennel that grows in Kathy and Steve's yard. There were so many of them. We would keep them in jars, with fennel, and watch them eat and grow, and then become still in a comma shape, attached to a stem. Somehow, magically, they would be transformed into a little green compact case, smaller than the caterpiller seems to have been. Days would go by, and then after a week or two, a butterfly would emerge, wings crumpled and damp. It takes a while for the wings to dry, and it until they do, the butterfly cannot fly. Once it could fly, we would release it in Kathy and Steve's yard, and watch it fly away.
These are black swallowtail butterflies. They are two or three inches across, mostly black, with iridescent blue and yellow and just a bit of red. And this summer, and last summer, I have seen not a single one.
I have seen a few yellow sulphur butterlies, and a few eastern swallowtails - those are the ones that are yellow and black striped. Within the last week I've seen three, more than I've seen for the rest of the summer combined. Yesterday I saw an orange butterfly fluttering above the azaleas in front of our house; I'm not sure what kind it was, but I know it wasn't a black swallowtail.
So I was happy, on Saturday, to find them eating my fennel. I have tried in a half-hearted way to get fennel in our yard over the years, but I was so worried last year, when there were no caterpillers at all next door in Kathy and Steve's yard, that this year I finally did it. It's not very big but it's healthy and green and not yet gone to seed, and on it there are three caterpillers. One is about an inch and a half long, one about an inch and a quarter, and one about three-quarters of an inch. Yesterday intermittently I checked on them, and sometimes I couldn't find one or the other of them, but as of yesterday evening they were all there. (Anyone driving by our house would wonder about the woman sitting on the driveway, staring at the plant.)
Last year, I wondered if it was the drought, and it does seem that their reappearance coincides with more rain this summer. But I'm glad they are back, and if they prefer, they can even eat my parsley.
These are black swallowtail butterflies. They are two or three inches across, mostly black, with iridescent blue and yellow and just a bit of red. And this summer, and last summer, I have seen not a single one.
I have seen a few yellow sulphur butterlies, and a few eastern swallowtails - those are the ones that are yellow and black striped. Within the last week I've seen three, more than I've seen for the rest of the summer combined. Yesterday I saw an orange butterfly fluttering above the azaleas in front of our house; I'm not sure what kind it was, but I know it wasn't a black swallowtail.
So I was happy, on Saturday, to find them eating my fennel. I have tried in a half-hearted way to get fennel in our yard over the years, but I was so worried last year, when there were no caterpillers at all next door in Kathy and Steve's yard, that this year I finally did it. It's not very big but it's healthy and green and not yet gone to seed, and on it there are three caterpillers. One is about an inch and a half long, one about an inch and a quarter, and one about three-quarters of an inch. Yesterday intermittently I checked on them, and sometimes I couldn't find one or the other of them, but as of yesterday evening they were all there. (Anyone driving by our house would wonder about the woman sitting on the driveway, staring at the plant.)
Last year, I wondered if it was the drought, and it does seem that their reappearance coincides with more rain this summer. But I'm glad they are back, and if they prefer, they can even eat my parsley.
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