Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marci,

I wonder if because you brought it out of the corner it got warmer and that was why it came out?? Not sure, just a thought.

The Not So Wonderful Neighbor

Sharri said...

George is just beautiful!
I hope you find some way for him to survive until it's warmer outside!

Needle, Thimble and Thread said...

Here's a link that you might find useful in feeding George. Hope he makes it.

http://flying-insects.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_make_a_butterfly_feeder

Anonymous said...

Marci,
I don't know what part of the country you are in, but I am in SW Missouri, and I just saw a black swallowtail in my yard this past week. This weekend we are supposed to have lows in the 20's, and I don't know how it's supposed to survive that, but even in nature they are already coming out because of the warm weather we've had the past few weeks.