The swallowtail that hatched in my garden

Veronica Vleck

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@vivi

This was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to do a plein air painting. I noticed when the caterpillar attached itself to the wall and looked after the chrysalis - misting it with water twice a day-for the 15 days that it took to hatch. Butterflies need to stay still for several hours after they emerge from the chrysalis, for their wings to strengthen. It actually landed on Pepe- my cat-´s paw and stayed there for a while before attaching itself to this piece of grass- but he just looked at it. Then when I managed to lure him away with some cat treats he just took a swipe at the empty chrysalis.
Swallowtail´s are my favourite butterfly. One rarely sees them nowadays. They would normally never stay still long enough to for one to be able to draw them- I was only able to do so because this beautiful butterfly had literally just hatched :-). It stayed in my garden for about 4-5 hours before flying away.

3 years ago