Anise Swallowtail Butterfly Bonanza

It's a banner year for anise swallowtail butterflies, at least in our garden! A few weeks ago we saw a butterfly fluttering around the fennel plant in the back garden, and sure enough we found 13 eggs. We brought them all in and they've started to emerge.

We've also had some chrysalises incubating for a year or more, and some of them finally decided to emerge as well. Three of the butterflies came out yesterday and four today.

We check the fennel periodically for eggs and babies, and usually find them when they're small, but one caterpillar eluded us until he had gotten quite large.

My photos of him are extreme closeups, he's actually a bit over an inch long. Anise swallowtail butterflies, in our area, mostly use fennel for their larval host. It's plentiful and grows much more easily than the native host, yampah. The problem is that people often cut it down because it gets so large and rangy. Now that you know the beautiful butterflies that rely on the plant, please don't cut it down until the end of the summer! Want to learn how to raise the butterflies yourself? Drop me an email and I'll explain how-  HeidiRand@gmail.com

You can see my original blog post here. And I have more photographs of butterflies and other natural subjects on my website.