Caterpillar LIfe Stages

The joys of gardening! I have watched this butterfly come thru it's metamorphosis on my deck!

On the parsley I saw a few small black caterpillars eating my parsley. Should have taken a picture then. Each day they grew a bit. In my research apparently they go thru 4 instar stages. I wondered where the caterpillars went...

Then on the siding of the house right by the potted plants on the deck, my husband and I noticed a rather sick looking caterpillar- this was the pre-pupa stage. The next day in its place was a chrysalis hanging by a thin thread. Wow! 

I watched everyday...worried the Kansas winds would make it fall away. For two weeks it hung there. Then the color of the shell started changing...it was thinning and getting darker. This is the signs of the late pupa stage. You can actually see the blue hues and yellow spots inside! 

Well the next morning I awoke and found a beautiful adult butterfly! I missed the emerging process but watched for over two hours as the butterfly dried it's wings and then flew away!

Thank you mother nature!

This is early (green) and late pupa stages!

Full grown caterpillar on my parsley!

Took 3.5 hours to fly down to an over-wintered poinsettia! It's a female!  Couldn't quite tell until the wings were fully opened.

Fly girl fly!

 Submitted by bcrock.