Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, August 18, 2008
Hanging Out to Dry
Walking through the garden near lunchtime yesterday, we came upon this newly-emerged female Black Swallowtail. Her colors were vibrant and fresh, and she was nearly motionless.
By the time I got back with the camera, she started to move around a bit. That's how I determined that she was a she. If she was a he, there would be a prominent band of yellow spots on the upper surface of the wings. But since she is a she, she wears less yellow and more blue.
I thought she might be ready to fly away at this point, but she wasn't quite ready yet. I left her alone to get used to life as a butterfly.
Labels: butterflies, insects
5 Comments:
How beautiful!
Such a beautiful creature and brandspanking new too. I have always wondered how it would be to start life as a caterpillar and end it as a butterfly as both are so vastly different. BTW great pics!!!
Nancy: That was the first time I'd seen a newly emerged butterfly. The colors were so vivid.
Yolanda: Metamorphosis is fascinating to me. I just thought of a TV example - it's as if the Star Trek transporter could rearrange humans into, say, cats?
She's beautiful! I saw my first Black Swallowtail this year, and now, after reading your post, I know mine was a she, too. :-)
Kim: This is the first year I've seen many (any?) black swallowtail adults, after years of planting fennel and parsley for the caterpillars. I'm glad they decided to stick around this time.
Post a Comment
<< Tangled Branches: Cultivated, main page