caterpillar

Lately in the garden we've been catching every cabbage moth possible, and keeping them in "the bug jar." It gets them out of my plants and Isa likes observing them. A few days ago I discovered why my parsley plant was failing- a big fat caterpillar was eating it up! I picked him off the plant and put him in the bug jar. Thinking he would die, but at least quit eating my parsley and Isa could look at him for a while. After crawling around for a day, he scrunched up on a twig. I thought it was dying. Then it turned brown. I thought for sure it was dead. Went to remove it and saw some little threads attaching it to the twig. Went and looked more up online and discovered it's the caterpillar of a swallowtail butterfly, and is probably making a cocoon. So we're waiting to see if a butterfly emerges in two weeks!