Birth

I was sitting in the grass yesterday afternoon trying to capture some good butterfly photos.  While I watched and shot, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flitted by and sampled some purple coneflower nectar.  He flew to our back flowerbed, and as I tracked his flight, I was pleasantly surprised to see him find and begin to pursue a black morph female.  I smiled at their fluttery greeting.  Flitting and tumbling higher and higher, I watched as they flew near to a young tulip poplar tree. 

Their flight carried them over the fence and off into the field, but I wondered if they had been together previously and decided to check the tree.  I had transplanted this tree* earlier in the spring hoping for this very occurrence.  Sure enough, on one of the top-most leaves, I found an egg.

After checking some references to be certain, I decided to go out and retrieve the leaf.  When I found it, the egg had already changed from green to a golden yellow suggesting it was going to hatch within a day.  Heavy rains were moving into the area, and I didn’t want this little guy to drown as soon as he made his appearance into this world.  All those butterfly-raising supplies I ordered this spring have certainly been handy.  I wrapped the petiole of the leaf in a wet paper towel to keep it from wilting and set the entire thing down inside a sterile caterpillar-raising container.
Shortly after bringing the egg inside, it became transparent.  I checked on it again before going to bed, and the caterpillar had not yet hatched.  The caterpillar’s black head was clearly visible through the shell.
 

   This morning, the caterpillar had chewed a hole in its eggshell.

I checked on its progress several times throughout the morning as I took breaks from my household chores.  I missed the actual hatching, but did manage to capture it just afterward.

The caterpillar rested briefly before turning around to consume the nutrient-rich eggshell. 

 
Within an hour of its hatching, the caterpillar had fully assumed its first instar coloring.  God designed them with a great camouflaging scheme, unappealing though it may be--not only to us, but especially to their predators.  The early instars of this caterpillar resemble bird droppings to protect them from being eaten by birds.   

I hope you all are enjoying your summer.  It seems ours is passing much too quickly.

 

*The tulip poplar is just one of the host plants that Eastern Tiger Swallowtails prefer.