I spotted these small, remarkably coloured and humped caterpillars in Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). In total eight specimen smaller than 1 cm were positioned low to the ground in the plant. These caterpillars were new for me and turn out to be Swallowtails (Papilio machaon). A new garden species!

Unfortunately I missed the ovipositioning adult. Very nice to be able to see these larvae developing. Hopefully I’ll be able to observe some butterflies later on.

2022/v/30

2^nd instar

3^rd instar

UPDATE 2022/vi/05

4^th instar

UPDATE 2022/vi/10

5^th instar

UPDATE 2022/vii/03

On the morning of 3 September a fresh butterfly was located on the garden tiles. The wrinkled wings on its right side were not developed properly. I have seen this once before in a reared butterfly. I had put the cocoon in a box that turned out too shallow which prevented it from pumping up its wings properly. Possibly something similar had happened here.

It looked like the butterfly could not fly but it actually could. When my daughter had put it on a flower to let it feed, it took off. The right wings were flapping a lot faster to compensate for deformations and generate enough speed to fly. It is nice to see how the brains compensate. The last time I saw the butterfly it was flying rather fast, several meters high and with speedy wing strokes in a straight line out of the garden.

UPDATE 2022/viii/12

Beginning of August another Fennel plant gave up a 5^th instar caterpillar that disappeared a couple days later. Hopefully it will return as an adult in spring.

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Literature

¹ Nederlands Soortenregister

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