Black Swallowtails

[jhimmel at comcast.net]

Hi Richard - I have photos documenting the same phenomenon with Spicebush
Swallowtails.  A few years ago, I seperated a brood of caterpillars to hedge
the bet of more of them making it.  One group was in an area where there
were a lot of dead leaves around and their chrysalis' ended up matching them
dead-on.  The other group was surrounded by green, which was ultimately the
color of their chyrsalis'.

So, there's 2 species - both swallowtails.  No doubt there are others!

John

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John Himmelman
Killingworth, CT
jhimmel at comcast.net
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"Discovering Moths, Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Yard"
Go to: http://booksandnature.homestead.com/DiscoveringMothspage.html

Visit my other websites at:
  www.johnhimmelman.com
  www.connecticutmoths.com
  www.ctamphibians.com


  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu]On Behalf Of RChyinski at aol.com
  Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 8:57 AM
  To: ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu
  Subject: Black Swallowtails


  Info on the Black Swallowtails I have been raising. To save the Dill
plants in the garden I collected most of the caterpillars shortly after they
emerged from their eggs and placed them in a terrarium on live Dill and
Fennel plants. As the caterpillars grew to full size I placed dry sticks in
the terrarium to give them a place to attach to and form chrysalis. The
attached photo shows the difference in color of the chrysalis between the
ones on the sticks and the ones on the live plants.
  I have not read much about the ability of caterpillars to detect the color
of the object they are using to attach to and to adjust their color to match
that color and was wondering if this is common in all butterfly species.

  Rich Chyinski
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