Saturday, June 25, 2011

Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar?

I am trying to make my garden butterfly-friendly... but there is so much to learn!

I recently read that the larvae of monarch butterflies feed on milkweed. I have traditionally tried to eradicate milkweed from my garden, but now am letting it be!














Then today, while pulling out gout weed and cutting down thistles (which I hope aren't butterfly food!), I came across this caterpillar.














Could it be a butterfly larvae? I did a google search...














(None of my close-ups were clear... I don't know why!)

This flickr photo shows the caterpillar of the swallowtail butterfly. Is that the same one as mine? If so, I hope I haven't been pulling out the plants it needs to survive!

(And now that I look at the the picture again, I'm not even sure they are the same caterpillar! As I said before - there is SO much to learn... about nature, gardening, cameras...!)

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