Three days into raising our spicebush swallowtail, my family developed a routine. Each morning we broke a branch of sassafras from our nearby trees and gave our caterpillar his replacement. That gave us all a great excuse to examine any changes that might be taking place. At first we saw nothing. Then on our third day, we noticed our little caterpillar, that had looked so much like a bird dropping, starting to turn green and his "eyes" were becoming a little more yellow.
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| The first touches of green are starting to be visible on our spicebush swallowtail |
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| The "eyes" on the Swallowtail are a defense that gives the caterpillar the appearance of a snake. |
By the next day, our caterpillar had turned almost fully green with beautiful yellow "eyes" and blue dots on his back. His new greenish color allows him to blend more fully with the leaves since he's become too big to pass as a bird dropping.
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| The spicebush swallowtail is almost fully green, although you can still see some brown on his sides. |
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| The Swallowtail's real head is clearly visible. |
Stay tuned for more...it's very cool!
