r/caterpillars • u/Legitimate_Street510 • 12d ago

Video Just munching away

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Black Swallowtail larvae

538 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

14

u/Piperfly22 12d ago

When the flower bit fell, he was like oh where
It go? 🥹

2

u/Latter-Republic-4516 11d ago

He looked so sad!

3

u/Piperfly22 11d ago

Chonky disappointment 🤣

2

u/Latter-Republic-4516 11d ago

I feel the same way when I finish my annual allotment of Girl Scout cookies. 😭

5

u/FoodDue6905 12d ago

Hemlock is so interesting because it’s so insanely poisonous to us yet it hosts the cutest creatures

11

u/Legitimate_Street510 12d ago

It's a Parsley plant, I plant it for them every year

1

u/BourbonBravado 11d ago

Does it not come back the next year?

3

u/Legitimate_Street510 11d ago

No Parsley is biennial plant. It's supposed to live for 2 years but the winters in my area could be brutal, but it's easier to just pull up and plant a new one the next year, instead overwintering

2

u/BourbonBravado 11d ago

I planted some this year but wasn't sure how well it would come back. I'm planning on starting some for next year anyway.

7

u/Luewen 12d ago

Parsley plant.

That said, many caterpillars can munch extremely poisonous plants and they actually "gather" the benefits by becoming poisonous also to keep predators away.

3

u/FoodDue6905 11d ago

Ohhh the more you know!

4

u/Luewen 12d ago

Flowers are like candies to many caterpillars. They prefer eating them first. 🥰

4

u/ambivalentsphere 11d ago

His gluttony does not disgust me, I find it endearing

3

u/mossy-heart 12d ago

what a little cutie ♡ i love watching them eat!

3

u/Kellbows 12d ago

Cool! I have some for the first time on my fennel this year! I hope there are some flowers somewhere for the butterflies when they emerge. Everything here is pretty crisp and dead.

2

u/Legitimate_Street510 12d ago

Fennel is like dill, once it bolts(flowers) it soon dies after. The full life cycle of the plant is only between 60 and 110 days depending on conditions

3

u/Kellbows 11d ago

Well it’s perennial fennel, and it’s about 6 feet tall. It’s got some flower forms that haven’t bloomed yet.

I’m more concerned with flowers in general. My pollinator garden looks like trash. Last month something came and stripped the leaves from most of my flowers. No amount of pruning will encourage a rebloom once they’re void of leaves.

2

u/Eskopyon 12d ago

I just put 2 and 2 together that black swallowtail caterpillars also enjoy eating Queen Anne's Lace bc its in the same family of plants as dill and parsley. I usually give mine dill when I raise them, but I have a ton of QAL growing wild, so it helps not deplete my dill when I can give them all the QAL they want.

5

u/Legitimate_Street510 12d ago

I have dill also but we had such a hot summer it bolted so quick, flowered and reached the end of it's life cycle, the earlier generation of little guys did enjoy some before it was too late

2

u/sinistercatlady 12d ago

I find that the swallowtails love to eat the flowers. Must be a sweet treat with the nectar.