We went online and found out that a particular kind of butterfly, called a Black Swallowtail, loves to lay its eggs on fennel, dill, and parsley plants. (We have two kinds of parsley and dill in our herb garden but only one caterpillar on the parsley plants and none on the dill plants, compared to more than 20 on the fennel plant...I guess they really prefer fennel!)
Now that we knew what we were looking for, we paid closer attention...and saw more Black Swallowtails in the herb garden. Maybe this one is laying her eggs? She wasn't skittish at all, which seemed odd. She just hung there, upside down, while we watched her.
Merrit decided that the one caterpillar on the parsley plant had gotten lost and needed to be with the rest of his family, so here's Merrit, moving the caterpillar back to the fennel plant. (If you look closely, you can see Ollie watching us from the storm door.)
Hopefully our caterpillars will all make their chrysalids soon and we will get to watch them turn into Black Swallowtail butterflies!
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