Checking in on the school garden this week brought some very cool surprises. First, Urban Nature Club member and student gardener, Iory, found an odd looking caterpillar in the grass. I didn't know what it was, so when I went home I did a little research and learned that it was the larva of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. I thought that was a little strange since the larva's host plant (the plants eaten by this particular caterpillar) are mostly tree leaves, like Tulip tree, Magnolia, Wild Cherry, Sassafras. The larva usually live high up in these trees in silky nests. Apparently this one fell and found it's way to our garden. Lucky us!
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| Iory holding the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar |
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Chrysalis |
By the way, the caterpillar is usually green and only turns brown when its near to pupating. And the yellow-rimmed "eyes" are not eyes at all. They are "eye spots" used to scare away predators.
The night of the day that Iory found the caterpillar was a night of wonderful transformation. The caterpillar turned into a chrysalis. And that's how it remains as of today. Within a week or so, it will change into a gorgeous Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. Stay tuned!
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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This afternoon I visited the garden to do some watering. It's been sooooo hot and I was worried about the plants. When I was watering the McDonald Avenue side garden, I took a look at my recently sowed dill and found two Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies. I recognized them because in previous years I had found them in the herb bed. The caterpillars really like to chew on our dill and parsley. I plucked them off so they don't damage our herbs and are now raising them at home. It's very important that I keep them fed with lots of fresh dill and parsley.
Then I walked over to the raspberry patch, which didn't have much to harvest, but then I noticed a chubby caterpillar on the milkweed in that bed and instantly knew it was a Monarch caterpillar. Milkweed is the only plant a Monarch caterpillar will eat. I also took the caterpillar home and am feeding it as well, since I have lots of milkweed in my home garden. You can see in the photo below just how quickly these guys eat! Since it's so big and fat, it's probably going to pupa soon, so in the morning I will set it up with a little branch to hang on. Again, stay tuned!
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| The large caterpillar is a Monarch larva. The two smaller larvae are Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars. |
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| Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly |
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| Monarch Butterfly |
6 comments:
HI Ms. Seitz
I was just looking at this new post on your blog and i stopped when i saw the Monarch caterpillar. I remember when I went to my aunt's house, we saw the same exact caterpillar, about three of them chewing on the plants in my aunts garden. and they were also on the neighbor's garden too. In my aunt's neighbor's garden they were also chewing on their raspberry patch. They also chewed up my aunt's pepper plants!
Tasfiya: The monarch caterpillar only eats one type of plant--milkweed. So the caterpillars you saw were different caterpillars. Maybe they have the same colors and all, but they couldn't be monarchs. I woke up this morning and the monarch was a beautiful green chrysalis. I'll post a photo later!
oh. Now I understand. Ill try to figure out what type they were beacuse they looked alot like the Monarchs. Well thanks for letting me know. How's your summer so far? :)
My Shoes are still Sandy!
Also- Thank you for a wonderful year at ps230
Ms. Seitz!
Danny: Thanks for your really nice notes. I loved having you guys in the club and taking you on that trip. Stay in touch and let me know how things are at MS 51!
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