At about noon we were in the garden and saw only 2 caterpillars (out of our original 7) left on the carrot greens and wondered whether they had wandered off to form chrysalises or if they had fallen victim to wasps or birds. The big poops (!) on the carrot greens suggested pupating was imminent, but we couldn’t see chrysalises anywhere. We gave up and went inside, hoping to find something to which we could transfer the caterpillars to watch them metamorphose.
By the time we got back outside, though, it was too late. The remaining caterpillars had disappeared by 5pm . . . and then Audrey, half jumping the garden fence says, “Hey, I see one!” Warner, Jaydon, and I crowd around and see that she’s right. There, hanging by a single, silky thread is an Eastern swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. Within about 5 minutes, it was starting to pupate, and the whole process was finished just 2-3 minutes later.
I have now learned that the caterpillars tend to wander off to find a place to pupate after a big final poop, attach themselves to their chosen spots with sticky silk at one end and by a wrap-around silk thread at the other, and then hang for about 24 hours before forming their chrysalises. It’s still amazing to me that we arrived and found the caterpillar at exactly the right moment to see it all happen.
It chose a not-great spot, unfortunately — as Warner says, “It’s right behind 3d base.” We tried to protect it with some artfully arranged (so as not to be too pointy) hardware cloth, and stuck up next to it the sign I made a couple years ago — it has pictures of the Eastern swallowtail butterfly caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly. If our caterpillar/chrysalis miraculously manages to survive the rain and baseball, it would emerge in 10-14 days. So we should start looking on July 13. Fingers crossed!
Concord Village EarthLab 
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