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I was harvesting herbs this morning & found many of these on the parsley & fennel. Sorry for the blurry pic.

Good guy, bad guy or butterfly?

Hard to tell with the blurry picture Patty. Parsley & fennel are host plants for most of the swallowtail varieties...the cats are usually black & yellow striped. Yours looks like black with a band of white, so I don't know.

ve

Found this> Online

When they first hatch the Black Swallowtwail caterpillars are only around 2mm long, and are black with a white band around their middle. Unfortunately, my pictures of first instar Black Swallowtails are not clear enough to make out all these details.

Thanks Muddy. I looked at pics of the BSC & that's what they are! Happy dance!

Patty, I'm glad you posted this. I would have done away with any that showed up cause I thought it was only the ones that VE discribed.
I'll do a happy dance too now if I get any!
Thank you!

Its a swallowtail caterpillar. I'll post some pictures but here is a link - http://www.butterflyfunfacts.c...rflysimilarities.php

Two phases of the spicebush swallowtail butterfly. They turn yellow when they are about to pupate.

swallowtail larvae.

eastern black swallowtail. BTW, those aren't real eyes on the picture of the butterflies that are about to pupate. It's a trick to fool predators into thinking they are scary.

last one. Eastern tiger swallowtail.

What wonderful pics!!! Freaky looking devils!

Oh, Lucky you!

Wow thanks for the lesson ladies. Great pics too.

I must admit I couldn't tell if they were caterpillars or lizard poop! Thanks for the pictures!

Thanks for the tutorial, ST! Great pics! Now I know!
Lizard poop? LOL!

Beautiful pictures. Thanks ST.

Love these pictures - thanks! Love butterflies too! It also proves that you are never too old to learn.....I wasn't aware of the differences in the swallowtail cats.


ve