Black Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar
By: Meriel Bradley
I plant my organic garden to attract birds, butterflies, and bees. With this in mind, this year I planted dill as well as parsley in my flowerbeds to see if I could attract the beautiful black swallowtail butterfly as these are really easy to grow from seed.
This was a successful experiment, even though the chosen parsley clump was in my vegetable garden – now designated as the host plant – as I found these beautiful Black Swallowtail caterpillars in their late caterpillar stage eating their fill.
The beautiful butterflies are a joy to watch and a very welcome addition to my garden.
Quick Facts
Host plants for the caterpillars that you may grow in your garden are members of the carrot family such as dill, parsley, and sweet fennel
Young immature caterpillars are brown and white and resemble bird droppings
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