Saturday's Critters # 396

 It's summer and summer means caterpillar time.

I started my dill seeds early in the season in the house and transferred the plants outside,

after the last frost and the dill plants have done well.

The black swallowtail butterflies found it right away and started to lay eggs.

This is what cage #2 looks like right now.

I took all of these pictures this morning, right after cleaning the cage.

This cage has 15 caterpillars in it, of varying ages.

Some are very young.

In this picture you can clearly see all of the different sizes.

This guy is the biggest.

You can see how they hold the dill and eat it!

Cage #1 had 6 caterpillars,

2 died...

I think they died because we fed them store bought dill.

Above, one is in chrysalis and one is in a "J" hook,

the stage right before chrysalis.

You can see the silk threads they spin in order to hold themselves up.

Sometimes they are green in the chrysalis stage,

most often, they are brown.

This cage having 4 chrysalis, we will have butterflies in 14 days or less.

Sharing today's images with Eileen at 

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for Saturday Critters