Last Friday Momma and I found a couple of caterpillars. One was a fuzzy white one with a black stripe, a White Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar, which was venomous and left me with a nasty itchy rash on my hands, truck and neck that was miserable! The other was this one, a Swallowtail butterfly. He was hanging out on the parsley in our garden. I found out I could bring him in the house and raise him into a butterfly! Conveniently I already have a butterfly house. So we put some parsley and some sticks (for him to hang his chrysalis from) in the habitat and hung it in the family room for me to observe. I'm very excited! It should only be a few days before he transforms into a chrysalis since he is already so large. Then, if I'm lucky and he doesn't decide to overwinter, in a couple of weeks he'll be one of the largest butterflies in the country.
