[TN-Butterflies] Black Swallowtail caterpillar irregular behavior

From: kjchilds <kjchilds@xxxxxxxxx>
To: TN Butterflies <TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 06:29:11 -0700 (PDT)

Black Swallowtail caterpillars generally leave their host plant before they 
pupate and this has been the case for the 3 years I've been growing fennel. In 
all that time with hundreds of caterpillars, I've only found 1 chrysalis and 
that one was attached to the side of my house. This year I've been lucky enough 
to spot a few caterpillars as they were leaving the plant to find a secluded 
spot to go through their transformation. It's amazing just how fast they can 
move over open ground! Imagine my surprise when I spotted this on the fennel 
today.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p193/kjchilds/IMG_8744.jpg

I started looking more closely and spotted this one. 

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p193/kjchilds/IMG_8740.jpg

So far I've found 4 going through the process on the fennel plant. It's a tall, 
dense bush so there are probably more that I haven't found yet. I'm wondering 
what would cause this to happen. Is there something odd about this particular 
batch or was this caused by certain conditions?

Ken Childs
Henderson, TN
Chester County

http://www.finishflagfarms.com


      
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[TN-Butterflies] Black Swallowtail caterpillar irregular behavior

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