the coolest thing ever...

A few blog posts ago... I posted a cute caterpillar that I found munching on our parsley in the garden. Well, we decided to keep him. My husband dug out of the garage, a little mesh and wood box that he had as a child for catching grasshoppers. So that was our caterpillar's new home. I put a tiny jar filled with water inside (to keep his herbs fresh) and loaded the jar up with fresh parsley from the garden. The first day he pretty much inhaled all of the parsley and he was getting fat and grew by morning. Two days past and he was just hanging out, not moving from the top of the lid. So, I did a little research online and he was preparing for his chrysalis stage. It seemed like it was only one day until we checked again and he was in his cocoon. Eleven days later, I peeked inside the box in the morning before making coffee and noticed the chrysalis had turned from yellow-green to mostly black. I knew it would be happening soon, and just about an hour later I came back and he was emerged... our amazing Black Swallowtail Butterfly was born!

This was just about an hour after he came out of the cocoon.

He was hanging to dry out his wings.

I flipped the lid open, so I hope that didn't freak him out.

Still hangin' out.

I dropped a few flowers in, but I then read that he's not a huge fan of butterfly weed.

He prefers, Rue, Phlox, etc.

He was just hanging out.

I mean, c'mon... that's a big transformation that just happened.

I think he would say, "yeah, i'm pretty freaking amazing!"

Finally after about 2 1/2 hours, he opened his wings! So gorgeous!

He seemed so small until he opened his wings fully.

 

 So amazing and just about the coolest thing ever!