Back in June I discovered this fat little caterpillar firmly attached to a carrot leaf. He really didn't want to be removed, going so far to rear up and sprout little horns when I disturbed him. Just seemed to be happy eating my carrot leaves. The boys and M and I brought him inside in the kids' bug cage and with a stick and plenty of carrot leaves we discovered he (or she...) was a black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. He lived in the cage for a few days and then seemed to start shriveling up pretty quickly. His body mass went from fat to gaunt in a day or two and before you knew it, we thought he was dead. Hanging from the stick. Well, it turns out that he didn't spin a cocoon as we thought he would, but had just hardened his outer skin into a chrysalis. In about two weeks I was startled one morning by a beautiful butterfly inside the cage. We sent him or her out to enjoy the world. Pretty cool!
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