Today, this western swallowtail emerged from his chrysalis. We found the caterpillar, 11 months ago, hurrying across our back porch. We scooped him up and put him in a container with some host plants. In a few days he went through the process of changing from a caterpillar to a chrysalis. We expected him to emerge in a week or so, but he did not. We had read that western swallowtails can overwinter, but we did not expect to wait for 11 months.
We had left the house early this morning to go to a 5K race. We came home a couple of hours later to find this beauty in the butterfly house. It was quite shocking to see him there after waiting so long. Once he was ready, we took him outside and let him have his freedom. What a beautiful creature!
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| western tiger swallowtail Papilio rutulus |
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