Well my property is pesticide free and this guy was born and lived exclusively on the tops of carrots I grew from seed. He was perfectly fine in the morning NO discoloration, thus it happened in less than 10 hours. My guess was going to be a spider bite/attack... Here is the scenario: One he is dirty thus means he was on the ground, his defense reaction via osmeterium (orange antennae) are out and one looks broken, and of course the black discoloration (poisoning???)... I searched the area several times because usually spiders will hang or come back for their prey, but nothing...

WOW this makes me sad.......I just released the 2nd black swallowtail today out of 8 and I truly think they get a bad rap. I hardly see any of them around our yard but every year they seem to lay eggs on our fennel. I just love raising those guys. They take very little care and they are so pretty. We are in zone 5 in Brunswick, Ohio.

Sandy

Okay here we go again! This time it is a Monarch caterpillar - this is SO devastating and here again, I just saw him the day before getting ready to head off to make a chrysalis.... AND now I am almost certain it is a spider. When I went out this morning, after a rainy night I was dumbfounded over the amass of cobwebs that had formed in a day. In some cases they were all over the milkweed. I was using a stick to removed as much of the cobwebs as I could and found this little Monarch caterpillar motionless on a leaf near the bottom. He looks like something sucked out his innards from the waist down... AND on a close up I can see a strand of webbing on his front "true feet" That can't be from him because Monarchs attach from the bottom only. There was a baby nearby SO I brought him in on his own little milkweed sprig.

That is sad and the spiders are not good for the cats. Every time I see a cat near a spider that cat is coming in my aquarium as long as I have the food for it's survival. I saw a spider build a huge web just in front of my hummingbird feeder and destroyed the web over and over until we finally got the spider and placed it out from the bed. The hummers would have flown right into that web it I didn't knock it down and they can build some huge and strong webs, that is for sure. Sorry for the loss. They say the percentage of the cats in the wild are very low not sure of the statistics?

About the 'strand of webbing on his front "true feet,"' monarch pillars put down silk everywhere they go. Watch them when they walk. Their head is going side-to-side putting down silk which they use to grip as they walk on it. Put one in your hand and watch closely as it walks. You should also find the left behind silk on your hand.