My Swallowtail Butterfly – Caterpillar to Pupa

Finally I have put together the video from last August, when I found my Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. Enjoy...

A sneak peek at my Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillar...

I will post the full story soon, but here is a sneak peek at this stunning creature.

The caterpillar is producing silk from glands near its mouth and weaving it across the glass where it wants to walk. You can see its tiny feet gripping on to the webbing...

Source: Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar weaving a silk web by Nyki

Fascinating stuff!!

I taken have lots of photos and video of this gorgeous caterpillar over the past week or so and I will be posting them soon.

Swallowtail - Day 4

Look how she has grown and changed already! She is loving the fennel flowers.

Swallowtail - Day 3

The caterpillarium is a little full at the moment with all the peacock caterpillars I rescued so I had to think where "she" (I've decided!) could live.

I found a huge glass jar and placed her fennel inside, then I unpicked an organza jewelry bag and placed that over the neck of the jar, securing it with an elastic band. Easy to clean too!!

Swallowtail caterpillar - I can't believe it !!!!!!

I have been wanting to find a swallowtail caterpillar since I first started rearing butterflies. I have never seen a swallowtail butterfly, but knew they existed in the area. So, very unlikely, but possible, was my thinking!. I've been growing fennel just in case I ever found any as I know it is a favourite food.

Back story to the following post:

I am lucky enough now to be the proud owner of a fantastic camera. I have always enjoyed taking photos and movie, but with a doggie in tow for the last (nearly) 8 years I could never have anything too precious as I was always being pulled from pillar to post (and loved it!). Now unfortunately I don't have my gorgeous hound anymore, so there has been a change of priority and I treated myself!!

So a soon after my new purchase we decided to go to a local gardens and it was there I spotted a tiny, baby caterpillar. I had no idea it was there when I took this photo:

Circled in red 

Even when I decided to "rescue" it I wasn't sure what it was, I'd never seen a swallowtail caterpillar in it's 4th instar before, only ever fully grown ones!  I knew I had my fennel in the garden, so was fairly sure whatever it was it would survive! (I know the plant it's on isn't fennel, but it is the same family.)

The poor creature traveled home in a make shift carry case, with food of course:

Look how tiny it is, only about a centimeter!

I looked at so many caterpillar photos and butterfly websites that evening that by the time I went to bed I was convinced I had a swallowtail and was completely blown away!!

Day 10: Webbed Feet...

I couldn't believe what showed up inside the caterpillarium under the photography lights! So much webbing, everywhere! The caterpillars use it as a kind of transport system, a video will follow soon, but this photo of cute feet will have to do for now...

Just incredible, you cannot see any of this in normal daylight!

They are all Peacock Caterpillars

The two nests I found down the road last Saturday are both Peacocks! They are huge now..

Day 9: More Molting...

There is quite a bit of molting going on today. They stop eating and become very still in their webbing. Then, as you can see in the very right centre of the photo, they leave their old skins stuck in the fine thread.

Hiding today!

Day 7: I've tried to count how many...

... it's not an easy job!! I reckon there could be as many as 50, but they just keep moving!

These are just some of them

They are getting bigger all the time and molting too. I clean them out and give them fresh nettles every day. Here is photo of some the remnants they leave behind after a molt, plus all the webbing they use to secure themselves during the process, oh yeah and all the poop!!

It's quite fascinating (and disgusting)!

Day 5: Peacock caterpillars are big enough...

... after just 4 days, so it's time to go into the caterpillarium.

Day 1: Rescued caterpillars...

..are all safe! I've had to put them in a jar, as these fellas are so tiny I think they could escape from the caterpillarium. I unpicked an organza bag to use as a lid as they would easily fit through the netting I usually use.

They are so tiny! You just make them out behind the glass.
 (As always, click the photo for full size version)

Settling in their new home

I can't believe what happened today...

I have not searched for caterpillars at all this year, up until today! I had this overwhelming urge this afternoon to go and check the nettles behind our garage. To my complete astonishment I found these Peacock babies:

There are at least 3 times this amount again underneath the leaf

I then found another small nest just a few plants along. I know that these nettles will soon be cut down by the neighbour so I have moved them in with us.

I then walked up the road opposite never expecting to find anymore, that would just be greedy!

Nevertheless a few meters along the road I found this nest :

I've never seen so many caterpillars in one place!

About a meter from that nest I found another:

I'm not sure if these ones are Peacocks or Small Tortoiseshells, I will be keeping a close eye on them over the coming weeks and of course be updating on the progress of the rescued caterpillars.

The wait is over... (see previous post)

Yesterday afternoon I decided to see if the pot of soil that I had been storing for the past 8 months had any signs of life.

I carefully moved the dry leaves from the top and gently moved the very dry soil. A clump came away from the rest and inside this ball was a pupa lying in a space about 3 times its size.

As I moved the soil I saw that the pupa wriggle, I'd obviously disturbed the little "fella". I read somewhere that emerging moths require moisture so I sprayed the pot with water.

I checked on the pot first thing this morning, no signs of life. An hour later there was moth clinging to the side of the pot.

We'd never seen this species before and it took a while before we discovered it is a Clearwing Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

He spent some time in the same position just "vibrating" his wings

Photo is a snapshot from a video (to come soon!)

Then came time for release on this beautiful sunny day. With all the activity in the caterpillarium I thought once I opened the side it would be straight off, but no...

Second side off, still no movement, so I put in my hand and it climbed right on and sat for sometime, just preparing for take off. I always say this, I know, but I never imagined that he would climb on my hand . I have some Aquilegia flowers in the garden and thought that this would be a good place for it, then in a flash off it went.

A Hummingbird Hawk Moth Caterpillar (Possibly!)

I found this caterpillar on our privet hedge, Friday (8th September):

I tried looking up what he was, from last weeks experience I could tell he was some kind of hawk moth, but which one? He didn't have any real stand out features except his spots and a faint stripe down his back joining at his tail. All the photos I saw online had features that were a lot more distinct. So my conclusion is that he is a Hummingbird Hawk Moth. (Which would make sense as we had 2 resident on our lavender all summer!) What still doesn't make sense is that it was eating the privet hedge, but looks nothing like a Privet Hawk Moth. I don't know!!!

A naf photo but the only one showing the stripe

So, I found out what they need to pupate and decided I would keep him just to satisfy my curiosity. And just in time too as Sunday morning he had stopped eating and looked quite dramatically different:

Looks more like a puppy dog!?!

He stayed in this position for quite a while getting darker and darker:

When he finally moved he started flicking about and staying in this position. It looked like it was definitely time to pupate:

I found a clear pot and put some earth in the bottom with some dried leaves on top as I wasn't exactly sure what he would prefer. This burying yourself to pupate is all new to me! Then some privet as a climbing frame:

It wasn't long before he was in the pot rummaging around for good spot. It was late afternoon on Sunday (10th September) when he finally disappeared. Now I have placed netting over the top of the pot and placed it in a cool place. I guess he will overwinter and I will have to wait until the weather warms up next year to see what he really is!

Lime Hawk-Moth Caterpillar

I was just about to go inside the house after sitting in the garden, so put down my glass and kindle on an otherwise empty table next to the side wall of the house. I turned away and went to pick up Henry dog’s toy. Half way down the garden I heard a thud so turned back to see what the Henry dog was getting up to, but it wasn’t him he was fast asleep. I could see from a distance that the table had something else on it now, a grey blob, weird!! On closer inspection this “grey blob” was a caterpillar, as big as my little finger with a blue spike and a yellow backside.

How bizarre! I had no idea how on earth he had fallen on the table, so far away from any trees or plants. (We thought maybe a bird had dropped it, but he was in perfect condition.) Next I was on the internet looking up what kind of caterpillar “he” was, a Lime Hawk-Moth that eats birch leaves, of which we have two huge trees. OK so that explains why he was in the garden. After taking lots of photos and some video of this gorgeous creature I let him go on the birch tree out of harms way.

About half an hour passed and I came out of the front door to take Henry for a walk only to find another Lime Hawk-Moth caterpillar on the door step. I know it wasn’t the same as the first as this one had different colouring, a slightly more pink/purple back. We have never seen these caterpillars before and now two in one day. Needless to say Henry didn’t get to go for a walk for some time as I just had to watch this second caterpillar. It was trying to climb the stone steps, slipping and sometimes falling on the smooth areas. It then proceeded to climb up the brick work all the way to the top of the front door. Now that solved the mystery of how the first caterpillar ended up where it did, he must have been climbing the side wall of the house and slipped on some of the stone. I still don’t understand why they were attracted to the house though, it is in the opposite direction to their food source and they pupate under ground. All very strange, but fun!

Red Admiral Release...

I collected this little fella as a caterpillar a few weeks ago. He was around for a few days then turned into a pupa. Ten days later this gorgeous creature emerged from it's chrysalis and we released it in the garden, on to the buddleia. Firstly I could not believe that it didn't fly off straight away, then what came next was quite incredible......

Small Tortoiseshells on our Buddleia

These gorgeous creatures have been in our garden for the last 4 days, but at this point there were about 30 all at one time just on the buddleia (although they were really difficult to count!) We just couldn't believe it!!!

Peacock Butterfly Emerging Video!

Finally the video is uploaded...

I have put over 4 hours worth of video, from the first signs of change to a butterfly with straight wings, into a 3min 33sec video. The first part with the stills taken at 10 min intervals you can see that the butterfly seems to be "unsticking" itself from the cocoon in stages. This takes about 2 hours and then there appears to be period of rest. The second part of the video is where the gorgeous creature breaks out by splitting the chrysalis and pulling itself out, this section I have sped up by 2x. The last part of the process is where the body changes shape (can't be seen in this video) and the wings straighten, this I have shown at 5x normal speed.

I hope you enjoy!!

Green Veined White Butterfly in our new Flowerbed

My OH created this gorgeous video of a beautiful butterfly feeding from the Hebe flowers in our new flowerbed...

Peacock - Day 14 - Butterfly!

I am so excited!!! Last night we decided to set up the video camera and some lighting to see if we could capture the Peacock emerging. The pupa was looking really dark and as the Peacock has jet black under wings we thought that now could be a good time.

Completely different colouring than the last photos 4 days ago!

We also know that the butterflies emerged early in the morning last year. So my lovely OH did a fantastic job setting up the "studio".

The video camera was plugged in (so no chance the battery could run out), a 32Gb card would give us 8 hours of video (fingers crossed), the low wattage lights were positioned, the camera was focused and now all we had to do was wait......


...... When I got up this morning there was a butterfly positioned beautifully next to the empty cocoon! The camera was still running! The card wasn't full! - YES!!!! It had worked, at last we could see the moment a Peacock butterfly emerges.

The video is fantastic!! A real eye opener, I had no idea that the whole process took so long. It's going to take me a while to edit this video, but I will do my best because it is just sooooo good!

The video was uploaded on the 9th October 2015, but I am putting it here too