Several weeks ago, Elizabeth found a couple caterpillars on the parsnip greens in the garden. She wanted to keep them. I figured they were just garden pests (last year we hatched a moth of some sort, but never really saw anything), but I'm a weakling, so I told her to ask Daddy. Frankly, I thought he'd veto the idea, but when I came in there they were in a mason jar with holes poked in the lid.
In a short time, one had died, but the other was growing a lot. And then last Thursday, we found him/her life this--curled up against a stick and suspended by it by two strong nearly invisible threads.
Kip and I googled the little guy and found that it was a black swallowtail--a beautiful, black butterfly with orange/yellowish markings.
We kept looking at it that day and it was just sitting there, but that night it had turned to a green cocoon. Did I take a picture? No. I thought I had plenty of time. The internet said that they usually stay cocoons for 2 weeks. This is how it looked.
After a day or two the green cocoon had transformed into a dark brown cocoon--a cocoon that was just the color and style of the stick it was attached to. There is no way in the world we ever ever could have spotted one of these in the wild. I had trouble finding it int he mason jar. Other people must have this issue too, because I couldn't find a single picture of the brown cocoon online. And, yes, I forgot to take one of that too--well, not forgot exactly--just, again, thought I had plenty of time.
But when we got home from the gym today, guess what Elizabeth found?
Here's a video, though I haven't had terrible success loading videos and though it's a haphazard sort of video since I'm holding the camera with one hand and messing with the jar with the other hand. Still, it was so cool, I thought I'd include it.
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