Art nature | Swallowtail butterfly farming

This summer, one of my interesting project was to farm swallowtail butterflies... It just happened after I discovered a swallowtail caterpillar in my parsley plant and decided to bring the plant inside my house to watch the whole evolution of caterpillar to butterfly. It also happened that a group of wasps, who paralyse caterpillars in order to lay they eggs into them where very active around my garden at that time. So I had a mission to save this caterpillar... I ended up, a week later, with 6 of them munching on my parsley plant. Thanks to the local grocery store, I was able to supply them with more parsley because they would have starved. They eat a lot. They eat all day.

©2011 Doris Lamontagne
Swallowtail Caterpillar
When it is time to pupate (sleep) they become very active looking for the right spot to pupate. My cat would get very excited watching climbing all over the place. One day I went out and one of them has climbed my curtain and had started to pupate on the curtain rod in my living room. I left it there and kept an eye on it.


©2011 Doris Lamontagne
Swallowtail Chrysalid

Then from the first chrysalides, a butterfly emerged. It is so vulnerable when all wet with wings all wrinkly. I placed it in my garden and it hanged there for 2 hours. To watch it unfolding and slowly taking shape was just amazing.
 ©2011 Doris Lamontagne
Swallowtail and empty pupae

 ©2011 Doris Lamontagne
Female Swallowtail

Then it flew away…
 ©2011 Doris Lamontagne
Female Swallowtail

This is my second butterfly: a beautiful male. He is the one that settle in my living room to pupate.
 
©2011 Doris Lamontagne
Male Swallowtail

Since, I have given one pupae to a friend. The butterfly should emerge in 5 days. I have freed 2 caterpillars in my garden when they started getting restless. I have one more pupae which should emerge as a butterfly in one week.

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