Muncher the Butterfly :)

This is Muncher. :) He is a black swallowtail caterpillar that I found eleven days ago when I was harvesting some parsley. Correction, Giraffe harvested it and I was snipping it into pieces. :) Giraffe adopted him immediately and we looked up what kind of caterpillar he was and what he eats.

He was so tiny back then! I should have taken his picture on the spot. 



As you can see by the above photo, we initially placed him in a jar with fresh parsley to eat. Not too long after that, he was moved to the butterfly cage. 

You can also tell from these pictures that he grew a lot, quickly! Like the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", he had a voracious appetite! We gave him fresh parsley daily. He would eat at a rapid pace, resting in between as his body grew.

Saturday morning (July 29th), I noticed that he had begun to attach himself to this wild carrot stem. 

If you have not watched a video of the black swallowtail caterpillar life cycle, I would suggest you do. It is a magnificent thing! This video shows in detail what the process of caterpillar to chrysalis looks like. It is both gross and fascinating to witness. :) 

We left Muncher to his/her own devices while we went along with our school day. He/She changed far slower than the caterpillar in the video I linked. 

Each time we looked over at the butterfly net, there was still a curled butterfly in its original skin. The next morning, we were happy to discover that the chrysalis had been fully formed overnight! :) Now we wait to see if a male or female black swallowtail butterfly emerges. :)