Fennel George Emerged!!

For those of you who have read my blog for awhile, you know that I like to get caterpillars and watch them create their chrysalis and then hatch into a butterfly. Normally, the Wonderful Neighbor children find the caterpillars on the milkweed plants and bring them to me. These turn into Monarch butterflies. I name them all George. :) It is easy to remember their name that way. Well, last year, while I had a couple of Monarch Georges and also Weird George, I found a caterpillar on the fennel. I called him Fennel George. You can see a couple of more posts about him here and here. He ended up spending the winter in a canning jar in my kitchen. I had put him in a back corner and left him alone. I saw the jar the other day and thought I had better set it out somewhere, so I would not forget about him when it got warm. Well, DON'T bring a caterpillar in over the winter. You can keep him, but keep him outside somewhere. Fennel George emerged from his chrysalis. He is a beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly. I am not sure yet what I am going to do with him, because I think he will die if I put him outside. Here are some pictures of him from today.

Last year I also got the privilege of seeing one of them get into their chrysalis. I have some pictures and even a short video clip here. I would still like to watch one come out of it.

Here is an update on Fennel George. I took him to the Wonderful Neighbor's last night. One of the boys is doing a science fair project on the life cycle of the butterfly. The science fair is this Saturday. He is going to take George with him as part of his project!!!