It’s another warm day here in West Chester but I wanted to go see if I could spot the caterpillars. I also wanted to see how the campers’ grass heads were faring. It seems to me that the best time to find the caterpillars is earlier in the day and that held true today! Here are some pictures.
Asclepias tuberosa pods
Our Monarch is growing!
If you look closely you can see the tentacles.These function as sense organs.
The caterpillar or larva is the second stage of a butterflies life cycle. During this stage they primarily eat and grow. Their exoskeleton (skin) can not stretch or grow, so the monarch larvae molt or shed their outer skin five times so that it can continue to grow. It increases in size 3000 times from the time it hatches from its egg to the time it is ready to pupate and become a chrysalis.
Meanwhile our black swallowtail continues to enjoy the Foeniculum vulgare or bronze fennel.
I am thinking this is the eastern tiger swallowtail?
And here is our grass head sprouting some hair!
chestercoextbutterfly
That grass head is a hoot. Barb