A few years ago, after seeing a bunch of caterpillars on the parsley plant in our backyard get eaten immediately after hatching, my mom decided to keep a few of the remaining ones safe in a mesh butterfly cage. Those caterpillars turned out to be eastern black swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes asterius), a native butterfly species that uses parsley as a host plant. Unlike the ones … Continue reading The Life Cycle of Black Swallowtail Butterflies