Swallowtail Caterpillar
The Secret Identity Of The Swallowtail Caterpillar
There are many types of swallowtail caterpillar, and most of them are just as harmless as the next. As far as pest status, the swallowtail caterpillar tends to stick to a variety of wild flowers and plants for their feeding needs, but can sometimes be found ripping into a vegetable garden. To discourage this, you may want to remove the larvae gently with your hands and place it on a flowering weed on the outskirts of your yard. They may take right away to a new plant variety. These amazing little creatures have many forms of protection, including protruding horns at the top of their heads which can emit foul smelling and tasting fluids. This makes them rather undesirable to most birds and large insects, but it doesn’t always save them from certain death.
Some types of swallowtail caterpillar are marked with patterns resembling scary snake heads, and this can be their only saving grace at predator feeding time. From a distance, a bird has a hard time making this pattern out as anything other than a snake, which is quite beneficial to the larvae. If all else fails, and the little guy feels that he has no other choice, he will release his trusty grip and fall to the earth below his feeding plant in hopes of being forgotten about. This is a great idea for the avoidance of predators, but now he faces the task of climbing back up, and this can expend a lot of his much needed stored nutrition. Aside from his few trials, he has a rather peaceful infancy and pre-adulthood, and should be ready for his transformation within two weeks of hatching.
Like most other butterfly larvae, the swallowtail caterpillar will undergo an astounding metamorphosis within a protective chrysalis. It could take as little as ten or as many as fifteen days for the caterpillar to gain enough weight for the intricate duty of changing his smooth, long body into that of an elegant butterfly. Once nature demands that it is time, however, the swallowtail caterpillar will find a sturdy and secure twig from which to attach himself at the head. He will dangle here for about three days, becoming more plump and less long as his body prepares for the next phase of his development.
When the chrysalis is finished developing beneath his skin, he will begin the shimmy and curl, shedding his old skin and revealing his new digs. The chrysalis will harden within hours of the skin being shed, and the butterfly will develop within two weeks. The swallowtail butterfly will be without the pair of smaller legs at the front of his body which are common in most other species, and will feed on nectar alone.