Theyre Baaaaack!!

Don in SJ

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May 20, 2005
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They're Baaaaack!!

Last fall I posted the photo sequence of the Swallowtail Butterflies going thru their various stages to become butterflies and was hoping this year they again for the ump year in a row would lay their eggs on my two Rue plants in the flower bed.

Well, the Swallowtails did lay eggs several times this year, we have had a few baby caterpillars hatch, only to have them eaten by Daddy Long Leg spiders! :( So Don went on a "wipe out the spider" campaign the past few weeks. After killing approximately 50 of the Daddy Long Legs, a couple of the caterpillars finally are surviving and I hope the one or two left make it to maturity to continue their life cycle.

The photo I took this morning is interesting, since this caterpillar believe it or not only about half inch long right now and I am sure he will be changing appearance to a different set of markings as he matures, when he was about 1/8" long all he had was a black ring in the middle of the body, I never realized they changed in appearance so much as the get bigger.

Anyway, got a nice photograph of what is one of the varieties of the Swallowtail butterfly.

Don
 

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COUNTRY GIRL

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Aug 17, 2006
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WESTERN MASS
Re: They're Baaaaack!!

Great picture Don! Are you going to try and hatch it again this year? I got a kick out of watching the process last year! :thumbsup:
 

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Don in SJ

Don in SJ

Silver Member
May 20, 2005
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Re: They're Baaaaack!!

COUNTRY GIRL said:
Great picture Don! Are you going to try and hatch it again this year? I got a kick out of watching the process last year! :thumbsup:
Not sure, but the aquarium is read to go if I can "harvest" them before they leave the Rue bush to turn from caterpillar to Pupae. They do not do it on the Rue bush, they climb up the foundation of the house or go elsewhere that I do not know where that is, so I must get them at the right moment and put into the aquarium, like I did last year.......

Don
 

COUNTRY GIRL

Silver Member
Aug 17, 2006
3,806
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WESTERN MASS
Re: They're Baaaaack!!

Don in SJ said:
COUNTRY GIRL said:
Great picture Don! Are you going to try and hatch it again this year? I got a kick out of watching the process last year! :thumbsup:
Not sure, but the aquarium is read to go if I can "harvest" them before they leave the Rue bush to turn from caterpillar to Pupae. They do not do it on the Rue bush, they climb up the foundation of the house or go elsewhere that I do not know where that is, so I must get them at the right moment and put into the aquarium, like I did last year.......

Don

Keep an eye on that fella. I wanna watch! :thumbsup:
 

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