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[kittee]

i thought a bug update was in order.

Comments

[kittymonkey]

I spent most of my childhood studying the anise swallowtails in my neighborhood. We had a huge lot behind our house that had lots of wild anise growing. Once, a captured caterpillar escaped from the jar and built it's cocoon on a plastic bonzai tree nearby in our kitchen. It died inside the chrysalis and it just hung there forever on the tree. I think it eventually fell off.
Anyway, Swallowtails always remind me of being a kid.

And, boy is that second critter gorgeous!! He looks like sealife.

[kittee]

oh neat!
is that how you knew about squeezing them to make their horns flare out??

this is cool, i'd never heard of anise swallowtails before...mine mostly stay on the fennel...

http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/lepidopt/papilio/anise.htm

xo
kittee

[kittymonkey]

Yeah, I would pet them, it was hard to resist, and the little horns would come out. :)

They must like the flavor. Anise and fennel are very similar.

[kittymonkey]

Oh, it even says that the anise that grows in Southern California is also called "Sweet Fennel". But I've also read that Anise is often mislabeled as fennel, so...what's your guess?

[kittee]

i think they're definitely different species. i looked online at the anise caterpillars and they look very different from the black swallowtail...

miss you T!

xo
kittee