Second instar-so excited!

13 years ago

I am raising black swallowtail caterpillars for my first ever outing as a butterfly mom. Today was day six since the eggs hatched. I went in to check on the cats this afternoon and lo and behold, they had molted! It's always a surprise me to see how much they have grown in 24 hours. I had been hoping to actually catch them in the molting process, but I don't sit and watch them all day, so I guess the chances of that were slim. Anyway, the second instar is much prettier than the first, and I am looking forward to later installments.

All of my outside caterpillars seem to have vanished, but there were more eggs today. I have brought a couple more inside.

BTW, will they eat the flowers of Queen Anne's lace? Most of the plants around here are very sparse in terms of leaves, but the flowers are nice and large. I doubt that my supply of parsley is going to hold up. :-)

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Comments (6)

docmom_gw
13 years ago
I know they will eat the flowers of dill, parsley, and fennel. So, I hope they would eat the QAL flowers as well. I would certainly offer them some. Often they will broaden their tastes as they get bigger, or as their options run out. LOL. I think Monarchs may even prefer the flowers. Mamma butterflies of many types will lay eggs on the flowers, and those tiny hatchlings can't travel very fast, so I bet flowers are fine food options.

Martha
bandjzmom
13 years ago
Neato! They really do change so much with each molt. I think that they are one of the coolest looking cats around. Looks like you are doing just great with them! Congrats again!
Angie
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MissSherry
13 years ago
Great!!

They also eat mock-bishop's weed, so, if it grows in your area, you could feed them that. MBW grows in ditches and other sunny but wet sites - it looks like dill and fennel.
Queen Anne's lace is always listed as a host plant, but few have found any caterpillars on it. You could offer it to the cats as they grow and see.

Sherry
R.Lilly
13 years ago
You can buy parsley from lowes. We don't put pesticide on our plants! Only found that out because I've picked about 10 off our plants and let my boss and another co worker raise them. They successfully pupated. Two peat pots of parsley raised four cats. You may even find more there!! This is a pic of one I'm raising now found on a plant at lowes.
Liz
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you, R. Lilly. Are you sure that is true for all the Lowes everywhere? I am in Central New Jersey.
R.Lilly
13 years ago
I'm going to assume so. Unless they have a diff greenhouse supplier. I'd go check the plants out and ask. If you find cats on it then chances are they're not treated!! I think a peat pot of parsley is about 4 bucks. Maybe less! I wish I could send some of mine to you I planted dill, parsley, and fennel thinking i would have tons!!