Can not for the life of me find my list of butterfly cat host plants to ID this one. He's all by himself on my "struggling with the heat" Fennel.
If any of ya'll remember where I put my list, please let me know.
I D help
Uno mas image.
Thart looks to me like the caterpillar of the Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) http://bugguide.net/node/view/27648/bgimage
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/usa/718.htm
which does feed its caterpillars on members of the parsley family such as fennel.
Thanks Kennedyh, somehow I knew that you would be the first with the answer.
Have bookmarked the site for future info.
I think it's just a Black Swallowtail. We aren't supposed to have Anise in Texas. When I first started raising these I was excited thinking mine were Anise, but they just look like that in that instar.
Here's a pic of one of my BST's earlier this year.
konkreteblond, I'm the type of guy that just likes raising butterflies for the fun of it. Right now, in my backyard, around 8:00am, It looks like 5:30pm traffic on the West Loop between US59 and I10 (Houston). This morning I counted @ 30 of the little suckers.
sounds awesome kipper. And to think I'm excited if I have 12 of them at one time....
Kipper2, I think that's the only reason to raise butterflies, for the fun of it! Unless there is some money to be made in it, then let me know. ;) Yep, BST's give and give when you have food for them. I've always had lots of fennel and tons of eggs and cats but mine is barely there now. They had it earlier this year and then it started going to seed and never did much after that. I need to go get some small ones so they'll be big by Oct. when I usually get a bunch more.
Year before last one left me 50 eggs at once! All later than I thought possible. I was sure they would overwinter, but they didn't and they suddenly started eclosing in Jan. (I think it was) It was cold and rainy and not at all possible to release them. I had to raise them inside for a while until it got above freezing.