We found a caterpillar this past Monday. I was probably more excited than the other three because I had been scouring our fields here and at the vineyard for a caterpillar on milkweed. However, this caterpillar was not found on the milkweed, it was found from our herb garden on, as Jackson refers to it, (the pickle plant)dill.
We put it in the jar and from my experience in the classroom thought we had a Monarch. After a little research I decided we probably didn’t have the Monarch we had hoped we did, we hadn’t found it on milkweed! A Black Swallowtail caterpillar looks almost identical to a Monarch with the exception that it had a ‘scent horn’ that it raised from it’s head when disturbed, and we did disturb it!
We fed it lots of dill, parsley, and carrot tops and they couldn’t believe how big and long it grew! We had many teary eyed discussions over the caterpillar soon making a chrysalis with both Jackson and Abigail-her not wanting her caterpillar friend to disappear! Finally on Sunday morning six days later, the caterpillar had vanished!
It never made the “J” as the Monarch in years past had and the chrysalis was not the perfect green jewel hanging. Instead it attached part of itself to the stick and in a matter of hours this is what we saw! Now we wait to observe what beautiful butterfly will emerge! We’ll keep you posted.
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