Mad About Metamorphosis

We have a new specimen to observe in the miracle of metamorphosis:  A black swallowtail caterpillar/butterfly.   A couple of months ago, I planted some parsley in my herb garden.  This was sometime after we had learned when we were visiting some friends that black swallowtail caterpillars eat parsley.  I mentioned to Joseph that maybe we would get our own black swallowtail caterpillars on our parsley someday.

When we came home from our Lake Anna Vacation, lo and behold, we found several caterpillars on our parsley!  Of course we were all very excited and Joseph was thrilled.  To borrow an expression from Hoffman lore, I exclaimed, "Our dream came true!"  And Joseph loves having conversations about all of this, so he'll often open with, "Mom, our dream came true!"

(In this picture you can see a younger caterpillar to the upper left that is black with a white "saddle" and also a bigger stripey caterpillar that has been through a few moltings.)

The boys wanted to look at the caterpillars everyday, and we did go visit them almost every day, once or twice per day, and watched them grow and grow.  Finally, when almost all the parsley leaves had been eaten, but caterpillars still remained, I chose the "fattest" looking one for our butterfly habitat and put it in there with some parsley and some branches on which it could make its chrysalis.

A few days later, after crawling all around on every branch, we finally saw the caterpillar attach itself to one with a string of silk, and then one or two days later, it had become a chrysalis.  Now we are patiently waiting for it to emerge as a butterfly.  Every morning, around 6am, in the dark and drowsiness of my bedroom, I get the same question, whispered loudly from one of the boys (often it's Simon), "Mom! - can we go downstairs and look at the chrysalis?"  (Yes! Anything, just let me go back to sleep!)

And here are some photos from Joseph's birthday:

Metamorphosis cake with butterfly life cycle figures.

Smiling six-year-old Joseph eating spaghetti and meatballs

Taking a first look at the butterfly life cycle toy I made him.

The caterpillar with butterfly inside.

The chrysalis and egg (everything can fit inside the chrysalis)

The Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly (caterpillar tucked inside.)