Caterpillars

Black swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio polyxenes)

Only My Opinion

by Monica Shannon

Is a caterpillar ticklish?

Well, it's always my belief

That he giggles, as he wiggles

Across a hairy leaf.

We've been blessed to watch an amazing show the past few weeks. God let us in on the life-cycle of the stunning black swallowtail. It all began right here.

This fennel plant is growing in my front flower bed. One day the kids noticed it was covered with these colorful caterpillars.

We looked them up here to identify which caterpillar we had. At one time we counted more than 30 caterpillars eating heartily on this one plant. They devoured the fluffy fennel and grew and grew. Stay tuned and we'll show you what happened next!