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Tom Murray | all galleries >> Arthropods - Arthropoda >> Insects - Insecta >> Caterpillars - Lepidoptera >> Butterfly Caterpillars > Black Swallowtail - Papilio polyxenes
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9-26-04

Black Swallowtail - Papilio polyxenes

Northampton, Ma.

Canon EOS 10D
1/125s f/16 at 100mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Guest 12-Jul-2015 22:34
We took great pics of these pillars on a bush here at Matagorda TX next to the Colorado River
Lorraine 02-Jul-2015 00:36
Found one today happily munching on my parsley. Recall seeing the butterfly a couple weeks earlier.
Sherrill 18-Aug-2012 01:18
We are in Columbus , OH.. Last year we had an abundant crop of dill that the black swallow tail feasted upon to our enjoyment. This year, due to the early heat, our dill has passed so I found them today happily indulging in the parsley. Had a huge number of monarchs on the milk weed at our property in NH.
Shelley 01-Jul-2012 22:42
Oddly enough, I found a couple enjoying my dill plant - right next to my parsley. lol ... I'm enjoying watching them as much as they are enjoying my dill.
Jimmy 12-Oct-2011 22:41
There are hundreds of these on the five bushes by our front door. There are also 3-5 crysilists
Sandy 21-Aug-2011 23:21
I found six or seven of this guys on my celery plants. They seem to be eating the leaves.
Winnipeg Manitoba.
Cathy 07-Aug-2011 00:21
I found another one just today. His head was stuck in a spider web and he had web gunk all over his face! I took him into the house, wet his head and removed the gunk. After consulting this web page, I carefully place him on a parsley plant. I hope he grow into a beautiful butterfly.
Sandra 27-Jul-2011 23:21
I live in NYC and have an herb box on my terrace. Today I went to water my plants on the terrace and I found that my parsley is completly striped of all leaves and six of these little guys are munching away. But also in the herd box is rosemary, thyme and oregano completly up touched! What should i do? will they move on or should I move them to a park or something???
Guest 02-Jul-2011 17:06
I have them show up on my bronze fennel every year. This year I only had two so I wanted to see what they will become. Yesterday they were there-today gone. Where did they go? Now that I know what they are I am sad I only fed two.
Susan
Sonny 25-Jun-2011 22:46
I forgot to mention I live in Newburgh, NY
sonny 25-Jun-2011 22:43
I came home today 6/25/11, i was this green worm crawling across my living room. I have no idea how it got in here. Now I need to know what to give it to eat.
Samantha 03-Jun-2011 14:30
I found of these guys this morning!
I was watering my Dad's little herb garden, and I saw the cutest, fattest caterpillar on the Parsley plant! He was just too adorable. So after I was done watering the other plants, I came inside to figure out what kind of caterpillar he was.
lol And judging by everyone else's comments, these guys really like Parsley. XD
Guest 09-Sep-2010 15:15
I can out this morning and discovered 13 caterpillars on my four parsley plants which I use almost daily. One was completely stripped with only bare stems left. My first reaction was, "Hey, get outta here, that's my parsley!" I was going to relocate them, but came in, found this site and identified them. As I really love butterflies and wanted to attract them--they can have the parsley. I watched for a few minutes and the parsley was disappearing before my eyes. I wonder how long they feed. I have some big ones, medium ones, and baby ones.
Brenda 02-Sep-2010 18:56
One day me and my mom were out to our friends house to pick some dill and my mom said ''Hey look at this catipapilar think its a swalowtail'' and so we brought it home and looked it up and sure enough it was a swallotail!!!
Pam 31-Aug-2010 19:04
Pam-
Went to pick some parsley & noticed the plant was completely decimated!! 4 of these guys were munching away. They are beautiful.
stef 26-Aug-2010 11:50
I picked a bunch of parsley out of my fathers garden and when I got home there was this little black caterpillar. I put the parsley in a glass with water in the window and have been watching the caterpillar. Yesterday he shed his black skin and ate it! Now he looks like this! I blew on him and he shot out beautiful orange horns!
margaret 15-Aug-2010 16:09
Oh my gosh! I was just looking at my parsley plants and there are 2 full grown caterpillars and 4 very small baby cats....Next year I'm gonna plant LOTS MORE PARSLEY!!
Dina 07-Aug-2010 00:23
To my surprise....while I was cleaning my backyard up after a big storm hit Alexandria VA yesterday, I found 5 of these beautiful caterpillars eating on my parsley plant. This spring I planted many plants that would attract butterflies and to my amazement....a Black Easter Tiger Swallowtail was flying in my yard. Now, look what she has given me....these wonderful caterpillars! I can't wait to see the next birth!

Question: Will these caterpillars form their "chrysalis" on my plant or move somewhere else?
abby 22-Jun-2010 23:58
My son found 3 of these on our dill plants. The push out orange horns.
Helen 19-Jun-2010 16:43
Just found 5 of these on my parsley plant. Will they grow to butterflies, and do I need to protect them somehow? I am in Northern NJ and never saw these before, we grow parsley evry year!!!
Guest 08-Jun-2010 11:51
If found one on my parsley plant, so I kept him and gave him some dill (after reading that online) but he refuses to eat it. Then I gave him parsley and that was gone in one night. Will it ever form into a butterfly?
Ted 03-Jun-2010 23:37
found 8 of them on my dill plants will they eat them all up??
Lori 28-May-2010 20:24
I think they like my parsley plants, I saw two of these . Are these poisonous? Lori2
Guest 18-May-2010 23:26
(Q) Does it eat Bishop's Weeds?