Tiny Tuesday ...

... another swallowtail.

I think it's only appropriate that this beautiful female Eastern black swallowtail emerged today ... the day I found out that the equally beautiful Willemien (Admirer) passed away on Sunday.  

When she was ready we released her into the sky ... in Willemien's memory.  With the exception of the first one that emerged ... all of the swallowtails we have released have flown immediately away.  This makes it exceedingly difficult to get a picture outside of the butterfly enclosure.  

I find the life cycle of these swallowtails to be so amazing.  The eggs were laid sometime last August, caterpillars are then hatched and then this caterpillar pupated in early September.  We overwintered seven chrysalids in our back room ... it's not heated in the winter. The first of the seven emerged in late May and this is the sixth one to do so.  We only have one left ... I wonder when he/she will finally emerge. 

Thanks to trisharooni for hosting TT this month.